


Between the Bars

by Polomonkey



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Captivity, Developing Relationship, Healing, Human Experimentation, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Violence, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-14 04:28:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11200440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polomonkey/pseuds/Polomonkey
Summary: Journalist Arthur Pendragon is less than keen on covering the new magical creature zoo, until he finds out the star attraction is a captured warlock named Merlin. As the opening draws closer, can Arthur find a way to get Merlin out alive and away from captivity for good?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LFB72](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LFB72/gifts).



> This is just going to be one long hymn of praise to my amazing artist LFB, who not only drew such stunning and beautiful art for this collab, but also came up with pretty much the entire plot too. She has been a dream to work with and I consider myself so lucky to have bagged her. On a more personal note, this fic coincided with a difficult time for me in RL and LFB was so gracious and understanding even after I missed our post date (she's been ready for weeks!) and I couldn't be more thankful. So if you only leave one comment on this collab, [leave it for LFB](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11037300)! She is a true gem <3
> 
> Massive thanks also to Narlth and Sides for running this awesome fest! Also fills my h/c bingo square 'loss of powers'

[](http://imgur.com/G0xMFkq)

 

Arthur Pendragon was bored. He had spent forty minutes in the Merc with only his father and the chauffeur for company. He’d spent a further hour sat in an airless conference room listening to Cenred Deane drone on about overheads and projected spends and investor perks while Arthur sweated in his suit and tie. And now he was about to spend at least another hour wandering around Cenred’s pathetic excuse for a creature zoo.

It was unseasonably hot for April and Arthur had made the case for Chinos and a linen shirt – didn’t people normally wear casual clothes to a zoo anyway? – but his father had unceremoniously shot him down. Never mind that this zoo was as far from Arthur’s remit as sports writer could be, never mind that he was here as a favour to Uther (who correctly trusted Cenred about as far as he could throw him), never mind the fact that it was Arthur’s _day off_. No, as usual his father refused to make even the tiniest concession to his son.

The zoo didn’t even sound like it would make a good article, for Chrissake. Cenred had initially bragged that he’d have the most impressive array of magical creatures this side of Europe but Arthur doubted the calibre. There’d been no mention of a manticore so far, and he definitely hadn’t been able to procure a chimera. Paris and Berlin Zoo had both of those. Hell, even the Cardiff Enclosure had a wilddeoren pen but Cenred hadn’t been approved for a breeding license. It sounded to Arthur like the man was sitting on nothing more than a few garden dragons, a wyvern hatchling or two, and a questing beast so old even Cardiff wouldn’t have taken it on. Uther had mainly been lured here by the line in Cenred’s email boasting of a ‘special exhibit’. Arthur privately suspected that Cenred had tied a horn to a horse and was trying to pass it off as a unicorn.

The next hour proved him mostly right. A distinctly average collection of underfed dragons, inert serkets and common wyverns. The questing beast looked to be on its last legs and a momentary flurry of excitement from Uther outside the cockatrice pen quickly dampened when they saw the weary, dull plumaged beast.

Arthur was still bored but mixed in with the boredom was a vague sense of depression and guilt. He’d never much liked the old fashioned zoos, with glum tigers and tired bears sat around in tiny enclosures, but it was even grimmer peering in on a fully grown wyvern that barely had room to flap its wings.

He was relieved when Uther finally ground to a halt in the middle of a corridor and said, with characteristic bluntness:

“To be frank, Cenred, you’ve barely shown me anything I couldn’t see at Plymouth Petting Zoo. It’s a strong business model you’ve got here, but I’m afraid our readers won’t be chomping at the bit to hear your quarterly projections.”

“Oh, I know,” Cenred said, with an odd furtive smile. “I’m aware that we’re in need of a few more glamourous acquisitions in due time. But I have saved the best for last.”

He gestured to a door up ahead.

“Alvarr, would you…”

A man with dirty blond hair stepped forward as if from the shadows. He pressed his thumb into a panel by the door, then tapped a key code in below.

It was a great show of ceremony; none of the other rooms had been protected so. Curious in spite of himself, Arthur followed his father through the door to find himself in a room of two halves. One half was the side they were standing in, a roomy viewing space set with fashionable exposed brick walls. The other half was set up like the other enclosures they’d seen: glass viewing panel, feeding hatch, straw bedding. And inside the enclosure, manacled to the wall, there was a…

Arthur didn’t understand. It was a man. A slim, pale man with dark hair and bare feet, dressed in green cotton scrubs. A man as human looking as Arthur himself.

[](http://imgur.com/mJdmfh5)

“A shapeshifter?” Uther said, clearly as confused as Arthur. But shapeshifters were a myth, surely.

“No,” Cenred said.

“Some kind of illusion?” Arthur asked uncertainly.

“No,” Cenred said again, sounding gleeful.

“Then what is it?” Uther bit out.

“Gentlemen,” Cenred said smoothly. “You are looking at the world’s only extant warlock.”

Uther gasped. Arthur still didn’t quite understand. Warlocks hadn’t been around for hundreds of years, they were stuff of legends now.

“Where did you find it?”

“I have my ways,” Cenred smirked. “Lot of power in this one, we had to take it by surprise. But it’s tamed now, mostly.”

“Mostly?” Uther said sharply. “What about its magic?”

“Blocked,” Cenred said. “See the runes on the wrist manacles? Complete magic suppressors. Or filters, I should say. They allow us access when we need. For… research purposes.”

“He looks human,” Arthur said, still too shocked to articulate himself properly. His mind was racing back through all he’d ever heard or learned about warlocks, scarcely able to believe what Cenred was telling him.

Uther’s frown seemed to indicate Arthur had said the wrong thing. His mind still whirling, he tried to back-pedal.

“I mean… the legal implications…”

That earned him a shrewd look from Uther, a look which was quickly turned on Cenred. His father may have hated all things magical, but he was concerned above all else with the respectability of his brand.

“Well it’s humanoid, I suppose, but under the old classifications a warlock has no personhood,” Cenred said. “And as they were thought extinct, no-one bothered to update the laws…”

The satisfaction on Cenred’s face was obvious; unabashedly smug at his exploitation of a legal loophole.

“They could update them now,” Uther pointed out.

“Oh, but it would take a long time,” Cenred said airily. “And once the exhibit is open and the scientific benefits of having such a unique research subject are apparent… I imagine the public opinion won’t be in favour of a change.”

Uther nodded, seemingly satisfied. Arthur was stuck on the phrase ‘research subject’.

“What kind of research?” he said hoarsely.

“Power testing, mainly,” Cenred said. “Response to stimulation. Attempts to provoke defensive magic. As well as physical examinations.”

He gestured to the glass.

“It’s fascinating, really. Anatomically it’s just the same as me or you, at least externally. But we’re hoping we can pinpoint the physical source of the magic within. Imagine the possibilities if we do.”

Arthur could imagine only too well. There was already a small clutch of practicing sorcerers in the UK, though their powers were weak and their activities kept mainly underground. The authorities tended to ignore them since the Legalisation Act; not one of them had magic enough to cause any real trouble. But the warlocks of legend had unlimited power at their disposal. If Cenred found a way to harness that…

Unbidden, Arthur’s eyes strayed to the one place he’d been trying not to look since he’d entered the room. And it came as no surprise somehow to find the warlock was staring straight back at him.

For a moment Arthur couldn’t breathe. There was such pain in the warlock’s eyes, such _human_ pain. He was no more a creature than Arthur was. It was shockingly clear in that one look that this man felt and thought and ached just as a human did.

How had he come to be captured? What had they done to him already?

He was thin, though Arthur didn’t know if he had always been so. There was a slight bruise on his right cheekbone and the wrist cuffs were cutting tightly into his flesh.

Arthur thought of Cenred’s research tests and felt sick to his stomach. It was inhumane, what they were doing, under the flimsy cover of archaic law.

He opened his mouth to tell Cenred exactly what he thought of him and his disgusting plans, then snapped it shut again. He had no power here. He’d be ejected from the zoo. Sure, he could break the story by himself perhaps, maybe even go to the police. But would they care? Cenred had been right about one thing, laws didn’t change overnight. And what could they do to this man in the meantime?

He looked back at the cell, at the runes on the wrist cuffs. Was there a way to get the manacles off? Help the man free himself?

But how would he ever have access to do that unless he-

Unless he stayed. Unless he played nice with Cenred and his father, and got the access he needed.

Every instinct in Arthur’s body was screaming for him to get out, to tell the world what Cenred had done. Inaction wasn’t his strong suit, and the idea of condoning this zoo, however deceitfully, stuck in his throat like a burr.

He didn’t know what to do. Arthur looked down at the manacles again and then frowned. Was he imagining it or was the man tapping his finger slightly on the ground?

There was something written there. Arthur craned his head and read the words ‘HELP ME’ scratched into the floor.

That settled it. He looked the man directly in the eye and gave the tiniest of nods, hoping to be understood.

Then Cenred said “shall we?” and Arthur began to move towards the exit.

He didn’t know if it was this that set the man off – watching the first outsiders he must have seen in weeks walk away. He didn’t know if the man had misinterpreted Arthur’s nod, if he wanted one more chance to make his plea. But either way, the man attempted to leap to his feet with a cry of “No!”

It all happened quickly after that. Alvarr lunged for a switch on the wall and an abrasive buzzing noise sounded. The man crumpled to the floor instantaneously, like he’d been shocked.

He _had_ been shocked.

Arthur watched in horror as the man twitched and shook on the floor, body spasming and teeth ground together in pain. It seemed like the jolt was transmitted through the manacles, judging by the way his wrists had locked together.

It felt like an age before Cenred flicked the switch again and the man lay still, tremors running through his curled up body.

“Shock training,” Cenred explained carelessly before turning to Alvarr. “Write that one up and tell Aredian, it hasn’t done that in weeks.”

“I hope we didn’t interfere with its regime,” Uther said, face displaying nothing more than curiosity at what he’d just witnessed.

Cenred waved a hand.

“It needs to get used to visitors soon enough. We open in two months.”

With that he swept from the room, Uther on his heels.

Arthur risked one last glance at the man. He was on his side, breathing heavily, arms pulled tight by the manacles. His eyes were flickering but they managed to focus on Arthur for a second.

Arthur nodded again, and hoped the man took it to be the vow it was.

 

[](http://imgur.com/dKbHGcD)

 

It was an impossible struggle to force a smile on his face but Arthur had the sudden sense that he was part of something much bigger than himself now, that he had to be stronger than ever before.

And he had practice, after all. Twenty eight years of being Uther’s son had taught him how to fake a grin.

“I must admit, I’m impressed,” he said, letting admiration colour his voice. “I didn’t think you had much of note here but I can see there’s something of interest for our readers after all.”

A person who knew Arthur well might have noticed the tightness in his jaw, the fact that his smile stretched no further than his lips. But Uther was not a person who knew Arthur well.

“I couldn’t agree more. I think the warlock will be just the right angle for an article. I’ve got a keen features writer back at the office who’d be thrilled to-”

“Actually, Father,” Arthur cut in. “I’m rather keen to write this article myself, if you approve.”

Uther looked surprised. It was no secret that Arthur tended to stick closely to the sport sections of the Avalon, where Uther’s trenchant political bias was less strongly felt.

“I didn’t think this was your sort of affair.”

“I find my interest piqued,” Arthur said. “A hitherto extinct creature found to be alive and well and potentially an untapped resource of power? I could scarcely fail to be interested.”

“It’s a big responsibility,” Uther said, regarding him critically. “This might be a front page piece.”

Arthur held his gaze, hands fisted in his pockets, until Uther nodded.

“Very well,” he said, sounding gratified. “I’ll expect regular updates. And can we assume Arthur will have the access he needs?”

“Of course,” Cenred said, transparently thrilled by the idea of both a front page feature and a Pendragon byline. “I thought the article could come out the weekend before the opening? That would give Arthur a two good months.”

_Two months._

Arthur’s mind raced. It wasn’t long enough and yet it had to be. Even if he had no real plan yet, he would make one.

He would get that man out of here.


	2. Chapter 2

Arthur came back to the zoo the very next morning. He endured half an hour of schmoozing from Cenred, including some not so subtle hints about what to include in the article, before he was finally allowed to proceed.

Alvarr was there again, ready to take Arthur’s thumb print to feed into the system and grant him door access.

“Here’s the code for this week,” he said, and Arthur took it with relief. He had feared that he might not be allowed access to the enclosure without accompaniment but it seemed Cenred was giving him the run of the place. It would make any rescue attempt a lot easier.

“It’s usually me or Val on shift in the warlock pen, though we might hire a third before opening. You’ll meet Catrina and Daegal today too, they’re Aredian’s assistants in the lab.”

He fixed Arthur with a look.

“See anyone else in here, pull the alarm. Warlock’s on lockdown, we don’t want word getting out just yet.”

“Journalists?” Arthur guessed automatically.

“Lawyers,” Alvarr said. “Of the bleeding heart variety. Last thing we need’s a court order to take him off our hands.”

He jerked a thumb at the CCTV camera in the corner.

“That’s disabled n’ all. Cenred’s too paranoid to even film in here, in case someone hacks the feed.”

That was a relief to Arthur, who’d been wondering how best to communicate with Merlin under the watchful eye of the camera.

Arthur also noticed that Alvarr said ‘him’ rather than ‘it’. He wondered if that implied compassion on Alvarr’s part. Likely not, judging by the vitriol in Alvarr’s tone as he spoke of the bleeding hearts.

More likely it was the simple fact that the man did not resemble a creature in any way. It might not be as easy as Cenred thought to convince the public that a warlock had no claim on personhood, not when he looked as human as this one did.

Arthur hoped so, anyway. Sadly his own father’s distinct lack of moral outrage the day before indicated that there were plenty out there who put entertainment ahead of any ethical concerns.

He didn’t want to think about his father right now, and how angry and disappointed he was in the man who’d raised him. Arthur steeled himself instead, and turned to face the cell.

The man was sat against the wall again, in much the same position as yesterday. The only difference was the fact that his eyes were closed.

“They’re late coming down from the lab today,” Alvarr grunted behind him. “Here, you might need this.”

He tugged a laminated sheet down from the wall and handed it to Arthur. It had a floor map of the room they were in, fire exits clearly marked, and then what looked like a short schedule below.

 **7.30** – Morning feed

 **8.00** – Exercise

 **8.30** – Wash

 **9.30** – Lab

 **12.30** – Lunchtime feed

 **13.00** – Lab

 **18.00** – Daily review

 **19.30** – Evening feed

 **21.00** – Lights out

It was a stark read. Arthur felt a wave of nausea wash over him and he swallowed hard, making a show of checking his watch.

“Nine forty.”

“Yeah, and Aredian has my balls if I’m ever late bringing him up,” Alvarr grumbled.

“Go see what’s keeping them if you like?” Arthur suggested, pulse quickening slightly.

“Yeah, I might actually,” Alvarr said, heading towards the door. “Got things to do, can’t wait all day.”

Arthur waited until he heard Alvarr’s footsteps retreat before speaking. The man was looking away so Arthur began with a rather nervous: “Can you hear me?”

The man didn’t move. Arthur coughed, almost certain the glass wasn’t sound proof.

“Er, hello? Can you hear me?”

He almost knocked on the glass, before realising that was exactly the kind of thing people did to animals in zoos.

It felt ridiculous to introduce himself like they were meeting under normal circumstances but Arthur didn’t know what else to do.

“I’m Arthur,” he said, and at last the man turned his way.

“I know who you are,” he replied, in a lower voice than Arthur had expected.

“You do?”

“Arthur Pendragon,” the man intoned, with no small hint of bitterness. “Uther Pendragon’s son and protégé. I didn’t catch on right away or I’d never have-”

The man broke off but Arthur could fill in the blanks. He’d never have asked for help if he’d known who Arthur was.

“Whatever you think you know about me, you’re wrong,” Arthur said quietly, stepping closer to the glass. “I am not my father and there isn’t much I agree with him on. Least of all the imprisonment of innocent citizens.”

The man held his eyes for a second and then looked away.

“You’ll have to try harder than that,” he said flatly. “Looking for a new angle on your story, are you? Befriend the warlock, gain his trust, publish all his secrets?”

“No!” Arthur said. “There’s no- there’s no article. I’m not here for that. I’m here… I’m here to get you out.”

It sounded weak even to his own ears and the man snorted.

“Of course you are. Out of the goodness of your heart, yes?”

“Look, this is wrong,” Arthur said quickly. “I may not be an expert on magic or zoos or even the law but I know wrong when I see it. I’m not going to stand by and do nothing.”

“Why should I believe you?”

Arthur fell silent. He had no answer to that. Except…

“What do you have to lose?”

The man looked at him askance.

“No, seriously. I’ll make you a promise right now, I won’t ask you a word about your life or your magic or whatever. You don’t have to tell me anything. If it turns out I’m lying, I’ve gained nothing for the article.”

Arthur took a breath.

“And if I’m telling the truth… I’ll get you to safety. As far away from here as you want to go.”

The man bit his lip, considering. Arthur didn’t speak again, sensing the need not to push. Hell, if he was in the man’s shoes he wouldn’t be quick to trust either.

“Alright,” the man said eventually. “Say I believe you. Which I don’t. How can you get me out?”

“I don’t know yet,” Arthur admitted. “But Cenred’s relying on a legal loophole. My best friend’s a lawyer, I could try to get her to pick up the case. And if not… well they’re giving me full access to this place.”

He gestured round the enclosure.

“You’d break me out?”

“If it comes to that,” Arthur said simply.

There was another silence, broken only by a sudden beeping noise. Arthur jumped.

“That means they’re in the lift coming down,” the man said.

“Right,” Arthur said and picked up the schedule again, to look as though he’d been studying it. “Well, I’ll… we’ll talk more later?”

The man didn’t reply. _Small steps_ , Arthur reminded himself.

“Oh wait.”

“What?” the man said, with a nervous glance towards the door.

“I promised to ask no personal questions,” Arthur said quickly. “But… your name?”

The man’s face shuttered off.

“Warlock, creature, it – take your pick,” he said tonelessly.

Arthur bit back the wave of outrage that rose in him to hear of such dehumanisation. He couldn’t afford the luxury of anger now. He had to keep a cool head.

But perhaps a flicker of his feelings showed in his face because the hard line of the man’s mouth softened for a second.

“My name’s Merlin,” he said. “For what it’s worth.”

It was worth a lot in Arthur’s eyes.

“Thank you, Merlin,” he said quietly and then there was a rattle at the door and Arthur looked back down at the schedule.

An irritated looking Alvarr marched in a second later, followed by a tall white haired man with strong features and cruel aspect to his face.

“I feel no need to explain the workings of my lab to you,” he was saying imperiously as he swept in. “And as for-”

He stopped in mid-sentence on seeing Arthur.

“Oh. You must be Pendragon Junior.”

“Arthur,” Arthur said, a wellspring of dislike rising in him.

“John Aredian. Your father and I go back some way. Regardless, I hope you won’t be too underfoot as you write this article.”

“Cenred’s given me access to all areas,” Arthur said stiffly.

“I’m the only one to decide who enters my lab and who doesn’t,” Aredian said severely. “At any rate, you won’t be coming in this week. We’re at a very delicate stage with our experiments.”

Then he turned, dismissing Arthur.

“We’ve lost enough time today, Daegal!”

A slim brown haired man scurried in and made his way directly to the cell with only a muttered greeting to Arthur. He pressed his thumb on the screen and then tapped in a code too fast for Arthur to see.

One partition of glass slid smoothly open and Daegal went inside. He approached Merlin and detached his wrists from the manacles with a small key from a chain around his waist. Then he helped Merlin to his feet.

Helped being the operative word. It was clear Merlin had trouble standing unaided.

“Why is it so weak?” Aredian barked at no one in particular.

“Disturbed night,” Alvarr shrugged. “Val said he kept waking up screaming and that.”

“Give it a sedative next time,” Aredian snapped. “I don’t want it dozing off all afternoon.”

Arthur thought he had hardened himself after the callousness of Cenred yesterday but he was no less horrified to hear Merlin being referred to as ‘it’; spoken of with such casual cruelty. There was no plane of emotional detachment Arthur could reach where he would be unmoved by the sight of Merlin’s pained steps as he shuffled forward; exhaustion and defeat written in every limb.

“Oh get the chair, we’ll be here forever otherwise,” Aredian ordered and then turned on his heel and left. Arthur watched as Daegal manoeuvred Merlin into a wheelchair and strapped him down. Merlin’s fists were clenched in his lap as he passed Arthur, as though he was steeling himself for the day to come.

Arthur tried to give him a look of reassurance as he passed by but Merlin’s face betrayed no response.

Then the door clicked shut behind them and Merlin was gone.

 

[](http://imgur.com/YUd8G7t)

 

The rest of the day passed painfully slowly. Cenred cornered Arthur again at eleven and forced him to meet the rest of the staff, in case he wanted to profile any of them. The only question Arthur was yearning to ask was how the hell any of them slept at night knowing what was going on here.

But no, that was unfair. He had already been told only a select handful knew about Merlin, to keep the secret until opening. The rest were only guilty of choosing to work in a creature zoo, something Arthur could hardly criticise when he was on the staff of a magazine known throughout the country for its anti-magic bias. Magic had been legal for the past ten years but you wouldn’t know it from the pages of Avalon. His father liked to dig up any dirt he could find on the UK’s tiny magical population – never mind the fact that most of them were hedge witches using spells to make flowers grow or sorcerers creating light displays for festivals and birthday parties. Uther printed every rumour he could find and commissioned ecstatic front page features when a rare genuine case of magical crime surfaced. It was ridiculous, given how small the number of magic practitioners was, and how limited their powers remained. And yet Uther and other similarly anti-magic journalists managed to whip up enough paranoia and suspicion that, even since legalisation, most practitioners kept their magic secret and their communities hidden.

Arthur had objected to this side of his father’s output for years. He’d been slowly putting a plan in place to start a magazine of his own, one that promoted fairness of coverage and provided a counterpoint to the anti-magic media bias. He knew his father would never forgive him but Arthur couldn’t bear to be a part of the problem any longer. He’d been solidifying his contacts and networks while he dutifully filed his weekly football results, and in less than a year he hoped to be ready for freedom.

Arthur saw very clearly, looking at it now, what a coward he’d been. He should have left years ago; he should have faced Uther and told him exactly what he thought of Avalon’s yellow journalism. He should have been out fighting the good fight in the open, not making secret plans in the dark. And now the full truth of where attitudes like Uther’s led had been revealed to him, and Arthur felt sick with it.

 _Never again,_ he vowed to himself. He wouldn’t be a bystander anymore.

He braved the last of the introductions and made it back to the lab in time for Merlin’s evening meal.

Merlin was sat against the wall again but his hands were un-manacled this time, presumably to allow him to use the plastic cutlery given to him. There was a thick white bandage wrapped around the crook of his arm and he seemed to be struggling to even get the food in his mouth, eyes glazed with exhaustion.

“Sometimes he falls asleep during dinner and I gotta go in there and make him finish,” Alvarr commented from the corner.

“What’s the food?” Arthur said. It looked like a sort of textured green stew.

“Some kind of nutrient protein thing,” Alvarr said. “I tried it once, it tastes like shit.”

He grinned and Arthur forced a smile.

“Anyway, he’s gotta eat it all. He was losing weight a few weeks ago so they increased the ration.”

If this was Merlin with weight put on, Arthur dreaded to think how he’d looked before.

“He refused once too so we had to force feed him.”

Alvarr wrinkled his nose at the memory.

“That was a pain in the arse; think I hated it as much as he did. He behaved himself after that, though.”

Arthur’s smile was still frozen on his face. He put his head down like he was jotting in his notebook, just to hide his face for a few seconds.

There was nothing much to distract him but the sight of Merlin eating torturously slow, as though every movement was a monumental effort. When he was finally finished, Alvarr manacled him back to the wall and grabbed the tray and headed to the door.

“Back in a sec.”

Arthur immediately moved to the glass.

“Are you alright?”

Merlin managed to raise half an eyebrow at that.

“Okay, stupid question, but I meant your arm.”

Merlin looked down at it as though he’d forgotten.

“They’re running out of veins they haven’t tapped before,” he said at last. “For blood samples.”

Arthur vividly recalled a documentary he’d seen about what happened to the veins of heroin users and winced.

“Does it hurt?”

Merlin seemed too tired to be defensive.

“Yes,” he said. “Everything hurts.”

His eyes slipped closed. Arthur wanted to offer more comfort but it seemed cruel to keep Merlin awake. Besides, what comfort could he really offer?

When Alvarr came back in he tutted.

“Never stays awake long enough.”

“Long enough” seemed to refer to the process of Alvarr re-manacling Merlin’s hands to a hook at the bottom of the wall and then lifting him onto a piece of thick foam which presumably served as a mattress.

“S’only temporary,” Alvarr said, catching Arthur’s look. “Cenred wants something more authentic for when we open, like maybe a straw bed or one made of leaves or something. Like in the wild.”

Arthur wanted to snap that Alvarr seemed to be confusing warlocks with monkeys but he bit his tongue, silently passing over a threadbare blanket from under the desk when Alvarr requested.

Alvarr draped it over Merlin carelessly, before checking the manacles. They were positioned in such a way that Merlin’s arms were stretched out above his head. They were at least lying flat on the ground but Arthur knew it would ache after a while.

Merlin’s eyes had been closed the whole time but Arthur didn’t think him asleep. Not when he was being manhandled around like a piece of meat.

Alvarr flicked the overhead light off in the cell and then came back to the main room.

“Guess you’ll be off then,” he said. “Nothing more to see tonight.”

“Right,” said Arthur, reluctant to leave Merlin alone. But there was nothing he could do here now. Better to go home and plan.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said loudly as he left the room, and hoped that Merlin heard it as a promise.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to warn you, this chapter contains non-consensual lab experiments, including electric shocks, injections and references to torture so proceed with caution. Also please forgive my extreme fudging of legal issues here and throughout this fic.

The next day Arthur arrived early enough for the 8.30 wash and soon regretted it. Stomach rolling in empathy and disgust, he watched as Merlin was dragged into the tiled room adjacent to the cell and stripped roughly by Val, the burly man who worked the night shift. Val’s hands didn’t linger, but Arthur still felt violated enough on Merlin’s behalf that his fingernails were digging holes in his palms.

Merlin retreated into the corner of the room, crouching. A second later Arthur realised why, as Val pulled a hose from the wall and began unceremoniously spraying Merlin with it.

“Is that cold water?” Arthur asked a hovering Daegal, hoping he sounded casual.

“Lukewarm,” Daegal said. “It used to be cold but he kept getting sick.”

The flow stopped and Arthur hoped against hope the ordeal might be over. Instead he watched as Val threw a flannel and soap at Merlin and said something they couldn’t make out.

Painstakingly, Merlin began to wash himself, staying hunched enough to preserve what little dignity he had.

“If he’s too slow, Val does it for him,” Daegal said, unprompted. He was watching Arthur closely, as if scanning for a reaction of some kind.

“Isn’t there a shower in there?” Arthur said, as neutrally as possible.

“Yeah but Val says his way is quicker. Alvarr used to use it, when he was on the night shift.”

“Did he?”

“He has more patience,” Daegal said. He seemed to realise he was staring at Arthur and reddened, turning back to the papers he was sorting.

“I’ve never had much patience with animals, personally,” Arthur said, hating himself.

Daegal’s expression was unreadable when he nodded.

Behind the glass, Val had turned the hose on Merlin again. It seemed to be an agonising amount of time before he turned it off again, before roughly throwing a towel and some clean scrubs at Merlin’s back.

Arthur had thought Alvarr was bad enough the day before, with his total lack of care for Merlin’s wellbeing and comfort. But he hadn’t sought to be cruel, either. In fact he had zero interest in performing anything other than his exact duties, no personal feelings involved. Whereas Val clearly took satisfaction in the power he had over Merlin.

Ten minutes after the wash was done, Alvarr arrived to relieve Val.

“So you do 9am to 9pm?” Arthur said.

“Yup. And Val does 9pm to 9am.”

Arthur nodded, filing the information away. At lunch, he sought Cenred out for a chat and said he’d like to profile Alvarr in the article for a zoo keeper’s perspective, and would it be possible to adjust the shifts slightly so Alvarr was here when Arthur came in at eight?

The next morning Merlin took his own clothes off and stood under the shower and no one threatened to come in and ‘help’ him. Arthur turned his head away and Alvarr barely looked up from Candy Crush the whole time, and it was still degrading and it was still inhuman, but it was better than before.

 

[](http://imgur.com/MBGPDqm)

 

Arthur didn’t have many chances to speak to Merlin over those two days. After getting the code to the cell door, he managed to bring him a glass of water twice, and he snuck in some Vaseline for Merlin’s cracked and bitten lips. Merlin still very much regarded him with suspicion but there was something else there too, something like the very beginnings of trust. It was fragile though, and Arthur knew it could be easily shattered. He needed to show Merlin proof that he was working on getting him out.

He hoped Elena would be the one to give it to him.

She was already sat in the café when he arrived on Tuesday lunchtime, perched in a window seat. She stood to hug him and he caught a wave of her sweet, slightly citrus-y scent. It brought a lump to his throat and it took him a moment to understand why. She was the first friendly face he had seen since this started, the first person he could trust to help him. It was a relief not to be alone anymore.

They spent a few minutes on small talk, it had been three months since they last met and that was longer than they usually liked to leave it. They’d been close ever since they met in Fresher’s week, back when Elena was going by Andrew. It was her tearful coming out as trans to Arthur in second year that cemented their bond and they’d lived together for three years afterwards. Then Elena had moved to Manchester to start her career as a human rights lawyer and Arthur had stayed in London to work at Avalon. But work brought her down a lot and Arthur went up to visit when she couldn’t get away. They hadn’t lost any of their closeness, but the last couple of visits Arthur had sensed a tinge of frustration on Elena’s side that he was still toiling away at Avalon. He’d told her of his plans to quit but it was clear she thought it better done sooner rather than later.

She seemed to think that was what Arthur wanted to meet about today and he took no pleasure in the look of shock on her face as he filled her in on the real situation.

“This is… I mean, a real warlock?”

Arthur nodded grimly.

“I take it Cenred’s right that the legislation’s never been updated?”

“He is,” Elena said slowly, clearly still reeling. The last statute was – God, 1750 or something. Obviously it’s slipped into obscurity since.”

“You did some modules in magical law, right?”

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not an expert but-”

“I just need to know if there’s hope,” Arthur said, leaning in. “If human rights law applies… habeas corpus…”

Elena’s forehead creased in thought.

“The problem is that most laws relate to personhood, implicitly if not explicitly,” she said slowly. “By the old definition, warlocks aren’t human so normal writs wouldn’t apply. We’d have to get him reclassified.”

“Can it be done?” Arthur said eagerly.

“Yes, but not easily. The first barrier’s going to be convincing anyone that a warlock actually exists.”

“Well that’s easy, we can get the police in to see Merlin-”

“It’s not that simple,” Elena said sadly. “I assume he’s behind at least one locked door? We’d need a warrant to search the zoo and a judge would only grant one if they think we have reasonable grounds to believe an offense has been committed.”

Arthur saw the problem immediately.

“And no judge is going to believe us.”

“Not without evidence, which of course we can’t legally obtain.”

“I could take photos.”

“They wouldn’t be admissible.”

Arthur felt like crying with frustration. Elena could clearly see his distress because she reached out to take his hand.

“Don’t despair yet. I don’t know the old laws well enough to tell you if there’s any loopholes we can use. But I know someone who will.”

“Who?”

“Elyan Smith, he’s head of a specialist law firm for magical legislature here in London. He’s brilliant – defended Tom Collins if you remember that?”

Arthur recalled it only because of Uther’s ire in the aftermath: the defence managed to prove that Collins – a sorcerer – couldn’t possibly have been responsible for the arson he was accused of, as his powers were strictly water based. Uther had printed many spite filled articles casting doubts on the verdict in the weeks that followed.

“I do,” Arthur said. “But I… Ellie, I only called you because I trust you with my life. Bringing a third person in…”

“I promise you can trust him. I’d stake my rep on it. He’s an all-round good guy and- and-”

A blush rose to Elena’s cheeks.

“We’re dating, actually.”

Arthur stared at her, situation momentarily forgotten.

“Ellie, that’s brilliant! You kept that one quiet!”

“It’s only been six months,” Elena said, a bashful smile on her face. “But yeah, I really- I really like him.”

“Good for you,” Arthur said warmly. Then:

“Elena and Elyan, Jesus.”

“Tell me about it. Our kids will be called Elton and Ellery,” Elena said, straightfaced.

They both snickered and then quieted again.

“Well… if you trust him.”

“I really do,” Elena said. “And if anyone can find a way to get Merlin out of this, he can.”

“I hope so,” Arthur said fervently. “Because my Plan B is slightly less legal.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that,” Elena said. Then she squeezed his leg.

“How are you holding up?”

“Me? I’m not the one locked up against his will.”

“No. But look after yourself all the same.”

Elena pushed her biscotti towards Arthur, knowing they were his favourites.

“I’m proud of you.”

“Don’t be proud of me yet,” Arthur said. He had a long way to go.

 

[](http://imgur.com/9Nlb830)

 

Elena had told Arthur to be patient but the following weeks weren’t easy. He called her every single night for an update and spent as much of his free time as he could researching magical law and historical precedents.

The rest of his time was spent at the zoo.

He was no less angry about what he saw there but he had learned to control it better. He was pretty sure Alvarr considered him something close to a friend at this point and Cenred was always obsequiously happy to see him. It was clear that neither they, nor anyone else, suspected the truth.

The suppressed rage took its toll though. Arthur had started visiting the boxing gym near his house on the way home, to pummel the punch bag until he was too tired to feel anything. He was suffering from nightmares too; ones in which he failed and Merlin was put on display, ones in which Val was shocking Merlin over and over, ones in which Arthur himself was doing the shocking. He’d wake in a cold sweat, heart racing and the walls closing in. And on the rare occasions Uther rang for an article update, Arthur would feel physically ill to the point of swallowing bile as he lied down the phone.

Elena kept reminding him to rest more, to stay healthy. But all Arthur could think was that Merlin was ten times worse off. He had taken to coming to the zoo every day, constantly on the watch for little ways to make Merlin’s life a tad easier. Alvarr’s regular fag breaks gave him a handful of conversations with Merlin each day and besides that, Arthur wanted to be there. He wanted Merlin to know that there was someone looking out for him, that he wasn’t all alone. He didn’t want Merlin to lose hope.

Despite Merlin’s initial reluctance, Arthur had reason to believe his presence was of some comfort. Merlin seemed to have accepted Arthur’s initial proposition that he had nothing to lose by trusting him, and he opened up a little more every day. Arthur suspected the monotony of Merlin’s daily routine had something to do with it; it was hard to ignore the only possible source of entertainment available. In return Arthur kept to his end of the bargain by never asking Merlin any personal questions in their brief conversations. Instead he told Merlin about Elena and Elyan and their progress on the case, or what his own research had produced. When there were no new updates, he tried his best to take Merlin’s mind off his surroundings with idle chat. Trivial things mostly, a man he saw falling in a pond or the brusque Tesco cashier whose rudeness Arthur secretly delighted in. He also found that, unsurprisingly, Merlin was keen for news of the outside world. Every day Arthur would update him on the major headlines, and he always tried to bring an item from the funny pages too, in the hope of making Merlin laugh.

“The Metro had an article about a hamster that has its own little sailboat.”

“That can’t be real.”

Merlin was sat in his usual position, head leant back against the wall. Alvarr had gone for a staff meeting and Arthur was relishing the extra time to speak freely.

“It was! They had pictures and everything. Her owner takes her out on the garden pond.”

“How does she steer?”

“I think she just floats.”

Arthur grinned.

“Got a little sailor outfit too.”

“Now I know you’re lying.”

“Okay, but only about the outfit.”

Merlin snickered.

“Does she have a name?”

“Captain Ham,” Arthur said promptly.

“Liar!”

It felt indescribably good to see Merlin smile. Six weeks ago Arthur would have thought it ridiculous to try and cheer Merlin up with silly news stories but he knew better now. Cenred and the rest had done their best to reduce Merlin to something less than human. Keeping him in touch with the outside world, reminding him what it was like to laugh – Arthur could see how vital it was.

“I think that’s it from today. Government’s a mess, of course, but that’s nothing new.”

“They should put Captain Ham in charge,” Merlin remarked.

“Now you’re talking.”

“What’s the weather like?”

Merlin always asked and Arthur had learned to be specific.

“Raining when I got up at six. Then cloudy for a bit but the sun was breaking through by the time I set off.”

“What kind of sun?”

Arthur thought back.

“Bright but not too warm. The kind that shines through the tree tops and sort of winks at you.”

Merlin had closed his eyes. He often did this when Arthur told him about the weather, as though he was imagining himself out there. How long had it been since he saw the sun?

Almost unbidden, the question left Arthur’s lips.

“When did they take you?”

For a long moment it seemed like Merlin wouldn’t answer and Arthur was about to apologise for violating his promise. Then Merlin spoke.

“It was January. Last day of the month. The ground was all frosted over and there was that weak pale sun you get in winter, glinting off all the ice.”

Merlin opened his eyes.

“I remember waking up that morning thinking how sick I was of the cold weather, how I wished I could just lock myself away till it was warm.”

He smiled ruefully.

“I believe that’s what’s referred to as a cruel irony.”

Arthur ached for the look in Merlin’s eyes.

“I’ll get you out for summer,” he said and Merlin nodded without conviction.

“In my next life I’m living somewhere warm,” he said.

 _You can do that in this life_ Arthur wanted to say.

“Where?” he said instead.

Merlin pondered a moment.

“I stayed on a Greek island once, a tiny little bit of land just off Corfu. You had to get there by boat from the mainland, and literally all there was were these three tavernas, a few shops, and a little clutch of houses. And the beach and the sea all around. That’s where I’ll spend my next life. Carving figurines to sell and swimming at dawn and spending all day outside.”

Merlin’s eyes were faraway, as if he were already there.

“Sounds lovely,” Arthur said softly.

Merlin sighed and suddenly all he looked was tired.

“It’s only a fantasy,” he said.

 

[](http://imgur.com/YUd8G7t)

 

The next night Elena rang Arthur instead of the other way around.

“Nothing yet, don’t get your hopes up,” she said in response to Arthur’s eager greeting. “But Elyan had an idea. You say Merlin’s undergoing tests in a lab – well, there’s laws governing testing on lab animals. We might be able to argue a correlation.”

“Merlin is not an animal-” Arthur began hotly.

“At ease, soldier, I know that, I’m only speaking in legal precedents.”

Elena’s tone was sympathetic.

“Believe me, you don’t have to tell a trans lady how dehumanising legalese can be.”

“Right. Sorry. What do you need from me?”

“Can you gain access to the lab?”

Arthur paused. Aredian had been making excuses as to why Arthur couldn’t come in since day one and to be honest… Arthur hadn’t pushed back. He could admit to himself that he didn’t actually _want_ to go in the lab, didn’t want to see what Merlin was subjected to in there. And in his defence, Merlin had made it perfectly clear he didn’t want Arthur coming in either. “No point both of us suffering,” he’d said grimly on several occasions.

“Would that help?” Arthur asked Elena.

“It might. We need specifics to make any kind of comparison.”

Arthur swallowed.

“Okay. I’ll get in.”

He told Merlin the plan the next day, while Alvarr was on his fag break. Merlin looked unenthused.

“Doesn’t sound like a rock solid legal premise.”

Arthur didn’t say that he agreed entirely; that he’d heard the worry in Elena’s voice, that it was ten days till the zoo opened and he was painfully aware time was running out.

Instead he said “worth a shot” bracingly and managed some sort of smile.

“Well. Don’t think less of me when you see me in there,” Merlin said in a would-be joking tone. “I’m not exactly the poster boy for bravery.”

“As if I could ever think less of you,” Arthur said automatically and Merlin looked surprised. He opened his mouth to say more but then the door pad beeped and Arthur had to move away.

It didn’t take long to convince Cenred of the vital journalistic need Arthur had to prove the lab’s necessity to the public. Despite Aredian’s objections, Cenred unilaterally declared that Arthur could spend all afternoon in the lab and was to be given any information he needed within reason.

Aredian was clearly furious about the whole thing. He glared as Arthur walked in behind Daegal wheeling Merlin (and that was another thing, Merlin was weak enough to need the chair nearly every day now, and Arthur didn’t like to think about the strain his body was under) and made Arthur stand over in a corner and promise to touch nothing.

“Daegal will fill you in as we go along,” he said sulkily. “If he doesn’t tell you something, that means you don’t need to know it.”

“Got it,” Arthur said coldly. Unlike when he was around Cenred, Arthur felt no need to conceal his dislike of Aredian, a man whom no one on the staff could remotely stand.

Aredian then turned back to Daegal and Catrina, who were strapping Merlin into what looked like a dentist’s chair. There was a clamp at the top which they placed around Merlin’s head, locking him in an upright position.

He looked very small in the large lab space, and very pale. He was staring straight ahead, and Arthur knew he was mentally preparing himself for what lay in store.

Catrina was tapping at Merlin’s left arm. In the harsh lights of the lab, Arthur could see clearly the network of scars and bruises on his inner arm.

“No good,” Catrina said briefly, moving to his right arm.

“If its arms are tapped out, we’ll have to move elsewhere,” Aredian snapped and Arthur cringed slightly.

“I’ve got one,” Daegal said softly, moving to stand next to Catrina. “Right there, look.”

He handed a large syringe to her and she swabbed the site quickly, wasting no time before plunging the needle in. Merlin winced visibly but didn’t make a sound.

“The injection stops him from using his magic externally when we take the cuffs off,” Daegal said to Arthur. “But the magic will still react internally to our tests.”

“What are you testing for today?” Arthur said, taking out his notebook and trying to ignore the tremor in his fingers.

“Defence mechanisms,” Aredian said shortly. “How its magic responds instinctively to pain.”

Arthur nearly snapped the pen in his hand. He made a show of writing instead, trying to control his emotions. He missed Catrina removing the magic suppressors and cursed himself for not paying attention. They needed a key of some kind seemingly, but there was a code to them too...

“Start with level two,” Aredian said to Catrina and she nodded, moving to stand by a wired black box. On the end of the wires were little pads that Daegal was busy attaching to Merlin’s chest and temples.

“Three, two, one, clear,” Aredian said dispassionately and Merlin jerked in his seat, hands gripping the arm rests.

They were shocking him again. Arthur felt like all of the blood was rushing out of his body, like he might faint at any second.

He didn’t know if he could watch this. And yet, he couldn’t turn away from Merlin.

“Good,” Aredian said, noting down the numbers which flashed up on the black box. “Level three.”

This time the jolt lasted longer and Merlin was sweating by the time it stopped, lips drawn tight together like he was determined to keep all sounds in.

“DM reading?”

“0,” Daegal said.

“Right. Level four.”

Arthur had to physically restrain himself from leaping forward when he saw the strain on Merlin’s face, the rigidity of his limbs as the current pulsed through him.

“O.3,” Daegal said and Aredian smiled.

“Good. Level five.”

The shock seemed to go on forever. Merlin’s whole body was in spasm, contorted with pain. When it was finally over there was blood trickling down Merlin’s chin and Arthur realised he’d bitten through his lip.

“DM?”

“1.2.”

“Excellent.”

Aredian looked down at Merlin.

“Give it some water,” he said dispassionately.

He turned so quickly that Arthur barely had time to wipe the look of horror off his face. Aredian looked amused.

“Squeamish, are we, Pendragon?”

Arthur couldn’t find it in him to pretend. He said nothing, lip curling.

“It can’t feel pain, you know. Oh on a primitive level, sure, but not the way we can. Does it distress you to step on a cockroach too?”

“Why electricity?” Arthur said flatly.

"We tried other things. Ice baths, stress positions, good old fashioned sleep deprivation. But there’s something about electricity with this one. It seemed to react to the magic, spark a reaction.”

Aredian smiled.

“I probably have all the findings I need on pain reactions, to be perfectly honest. I admit this is more a matter of professional curiosity now.”

Arthur curled and uncurled his fist in his pocket.

“I’m sure Cenred would be thrilled to hear that,” he said tightly.

“Oh Cenred,” Aredian said scathingly. “He’s no idea what he’s got here, none at all. Let him have his little zoo display. My research is going to be published the world over.”

He turned away again, just as quickly as before.

“Let’s move onto the scan. Though actually.”

He paused.

“Do just one more. Level eight this time.”    

Both the techs looked surprised.

“We’ve never done higher than seven before,” Catrina said.

“I am well aware, Catrina. Level eight, please.”

Catrina shrugged and moved back towards the box. Daegal hesitated.

“I thought we only needed a DM above 1.”

“We did,” Aredian said. “This one’s just for interest’s sake.”

He cast a sly look back at Arthur, whose mind was whirling. Level eight? Merlin had nearly passed out on level five.

Daegal started reattaching the pads he’d removed. When he reached Merlin’s head, Merlin twisted away.

“Please,” he said, almost too quietly to hear.

“Did it speak?” Aredian asked.

There was a short silence.

“Please don’t,” Merlin said.

“Curious,” Aredian said “It hasn’t begged in weeks.”

He turned to Arthur triumphantly.

“Must be our new observer in the room. Heisenberg effect and all that.”

Arthur swallowed bile. If Merlin begged one more time, he was freeing him right here and now, consequences be damned. He couldn’t bear to hear that soft plea, to see the look of desperation in Merlin’s eyes.

But Merlin didn’t speak again. He shut his eyes instead and as Daegal moved away, Arthur could see the tears trickling down from his closed lids.

Arthur shut his eyes for the level eight too. The sound of Merlin screaming seemed to ring in his ears long after the shock was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading so far! I hoped to post it all tonight but at 3am I might have to give up the ghost, so the rest will be here tomorrow!


	4. Chapter 4

How Arthur got through the rest of the afternoon in the lab, he couldn’t be sure. Merlin was so weak after the last shock that he could barely move, lying limp in his restraints as various parts of him were scanned and written up.

He slept until dinner after being wheeled back to the cell, and then only managed to eat half of his bowl. Alvarr made a frustrated noise, poised to go in and force him, but Arthur held his hand out.

“No point. They gave him an appetite suppressant as part of a test, Daegal told me he wouldn’t be able to eat much tonight.”

Arthur didn’t particularly care if Alvarr believed his lie or not, he wasn’t letting him in the cell. He had reached the point where he would almost welcome being outed, so he could grab Merlin and get him away from all this horror. The only thing that held him back was knowing he’d be stopped before they reached the gate; that he’d be permanently banned from the zoo and Merlin would have no one.

Still, it was hard not to feel like a monster, just standing by and watching Merlin’s torture.

As it turned out Alvarr needed no convincing, going straight back to his phone with a shrug. Merlin fell asleep shortly after and was still out when Val arrived for the night shift.

Arthur hung around, pretending to make notes. He didn’t want to leave Merlin. And yet Val was more suspicious than Alvarr and it felt like his mask was about to slip any minute. To know terrible things were happening in the lab and to see it up close were two very different things…

Arthur steeled himself to leave, knowing there was nothing more to be done tonight.

“Well, I should probably-”

“Shit!” Val interrupted. “Shit, shit, shit!”

“What?”

“Someone’s robbed my house!”

He was typing furiously on his phone.

“The bastards! Roommate says they got everything!”

He looked up at Arthur, face red with anger.

“And I’m here till eight, for fucks sake!”

“Go,” Arthur said instantly. He couldn’t imagine anything worse than leaving Merlin at the mercy of a furious Val in need of something to take his rage out on. “I can stay till you’re back.”

“What, really?”

“Yeah, I mean, he’s only gonna sleep, isn’t he? I can just write up my notes.”

Val paused, considering.

“I probably shouldn’t…”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” Arthur said, with a wink.

Val’s face cracked into a grin.

“Shit, alright. I owe you one, mate!”

He grabbed the iPad from the side and typed rapidly for a minute.

“Right, I transferred your thumb print to the cell door and the code’s here. Just in case there’s trouble and you need to go in there. You won’t though; it’ll be knocked out for hours yet. And I’ll be back soon!”

Arthur felt a slight easing of the tension in his stomach. Getting cell door access was the first good news he’d had all day. If it came to an escape, he would need a way in there.

Merlin didn’t stir as the door banged shut behind Val. Arthur couldn’t blame him after the afternoon he’d had.

He pulled out his phone and tapped a quick message to Elena. _Need to meet soon. A x_

It was enough. He couldn’t let Merlin stay here any longer. If Elena and Elyan couldn’t use his lab notes to find a legal solution, it was time for Plan B.

Mind made up, Arthur pulled a chair to the side of the cell and shut his eyes, trying to soothe the pounding in his head.

He must have dozed off at some point because he woke to the sound of whimpering. It took him a few sleep befuddled seconds to realise the sound was coming from Merlin and he shot up from his chair like a rocket, ready to defend against any intruder.

But there was no one in the cell with Merlin. He wasn’t even awake. He was whimpering in his sleep, the sound gradually getting louder.

“No. Please, no… please…”

Arthur’s chest grew tight.

“It hurts, please… no… Mum… Mum… Mum!”

Merlin’s voice rose to a cry and Arthur was leaping forward before he could think twice, grabbing the manacle key off the wall hook and mashing his thumb against the screen before fumbling in the code.

Merlin was thrashing as Arthur ran into the cell, his hands tugging at the manacles. Arthur fitted the key in as quickly as he could and pulled the cuffs free from the wall.

Merlin immediately brought his hands to his chest, curling in on himself.

“Mum,” he whispered and Arthur couldn’t leave him in the grips of his nightmare. He shook Merlin’s shoulder gently, then a little harder. For a few moments Merlin continued to mumble, then all of a sudden he jerked awake.

“That’s it, you’re alright,” Arthur said, as calmly as he could. “It was just a nightmare, you’re alright.”

Merlin curled further into himself, eyes still tightly closed.

“M’sorry, no sedative,” he whispered and Arthur swallowed a lump of grief.

“No sedative,” he said softly. “It’s Arthur. I’m not going to inject you.”

Merlin uncurled, just the tiniest bit.

“Arthur?”

His voice was still thick with sleep.

“You’re not allowed in here.”

“Val’s gone,” Arthur said. “It’s just me. Do you want some water?”

There was a pause and then Merlin nodded. Arthur fetched a cup and came back, making sure he didn’t move too quickly or suddenly. Merlin still flinched away, sitting up with his knees drawn tightly to his chest.

Arthur sat down a little way away, trying to make himself as small and unthreatening as possible. Merlin had come to know him better over the past few weeks but that didn’t mean he would welcome contact. Even if all Arthur wanted to do was take him in his arms and comfort him.

“Sorry,” Merlin said, after he’d drunk a little water. He was still huddled in on himself, clearly not quite free of the nightmare yet.

“What are you sorry for?” Arthur said softly.

“I don’t know,” Merlin said and he sounded exhausted, like he longer had the energy to be coherent.

“Sounded like a scary dream,” Arthur said, unsure of whether distraction was what Merlin needed. “I get them sometimes. Like about my dad or something.”

There was one dream he’d had from childhood, about his father accusing him of having magic and trying to exorcise it out of him. Arthur used to cry quietly for hours when he woke up from that one, terrified it might come true.

“It was about my mum,” Merlin said, more to himself than Arthur. “She… she died.”

“Cenred didn’t-” Arthur began, horrified.

“No, no, it was years ago. I just…”

He hesitated.

“I miss her.”

Suddenly it was like all of Merlin’s defences broke down in an instant. His face contorted with grief and tears began to slip from his eyes.

Helpless, Arthur moved a little closer and put out his hand, unsure of whether he should touch Merlin or not. Would it make things worse?

Then the choice was made for him. Merlin turned towards him and without warning, rocked up against Arthur’s shoulder.

For a moment Arthur froze and then he opened his arms. Merlin burrowed into them, pushing his face into Arthur’s chest. Arthur gently wrapped both arms around him, loosely enough so he could still pull away. Merlin’s whole body was trembling, his breath coming in little gasps as he sobbed.

“I want my mum,” he choked out, voice muffled in Arthur’s chest. “I don’t want to be on my own here.”

“You’re not on your own,” Arthur said, tugging him closer. “I’m here. I’m here.”

He held Merlin until he subsided into sniffles, his trembling lessening slightly. Arthur made soothing noises and rubbed his back and tried not to think about how many nights Merlin might have wept here alone, because the notion broke his heart.

After a while Merlin sat back a little and Arthur manoeuvred them so they were up against the wall, his arm still around Merlin’s shoulder.

“After- after my mum died.”

Merlin’s voice was shaky.

“I made contact with some of the dragon clans I’d known when I was younger. We lived in Wales when I was little and we were close to a nest, but I lost touch when we moved away.”

Arthur wondered if dragon clans were natural friends to warlocks but he didn’t ask, wanting to hear where Merlin was heading.

“I was lost without my mum and they… they helped me so much. I could never repay what they did for me then.”

Merlin stopped for a moment, clearly overcome. Arthur was retroactively glad Merlin had been supported in that time. He never knew his own mother so it wasn’t the same, but there were plenty times as a boy he’d sat in his bedroom alone and tried to imagine a conversation with her. It would have made a huge difference to the lonely child he was if someone had been there with him.

He squeezed Merlin’s shoulder, to show that he was listening.

“The- the day I got captured-” Merlin began and then stopped again, taking a deep breath.

“You don’t have to,” Arthur said gently. “If it’s too hard.”

“No, I- I want to.”

Merlin turned to face Arthur.

“I’m not only a warlock. I’m a dragonlord too.”

“A what?”

Arthur searched his mind but he was sure he’d never heard the word before.

“No one really knows about us anymore, we were rare even in the time of warlocks. It just means we have a special relationship with dragons, to command and protect.”

“You can command dragons?” Arthur said, a little amazed.

Merlin made a noise halfway between a sniffle and a laugh.

“Well. I usually ask nicely. Works better.”

Then his face turned serious.

“Wild dragons usually live far away from human settlements, you probably know that. But there were rumours of poachers up in the Highlands. A dragon called Kilgharrah had been living there temporarily, minding some hatchlings until they could fly to the dragon nests. I’ve known him since I was a baby, so I went to warn him.”

“The poachers found you,” Arthur guessed.

“Kilgharrah didn’t want to leave me. But I ordered him to get the hatchlings to safety. Then I used magic to hold back the poachers.”

His eyes half-shut, as if remembering.

“The dragons got away but the magic drained me. I thought the poachers were going to kill me but then one shot me with a dart. I passed out and I- I…“

“Woke up here,” Arthur finished.

“Yes.”

Merlin was silent for a moment.

“So I guess you’ve got some good backstory for your article now.”

“You know I’m not writing an article,” Arthur said quietly.

The words hung in the air. Then Merlin nodded.

“Yeah. I know.”

And he rested his head on Arthur’s shoulder.

 

[](http://imgur.com/MBGPDqm)

 

The next morning, Arthur emailed Elena with a full report of his afternoon in the lab. He waited two excruciating days for a reply and he could tell the second he picked up the phone that it wasn’t good news.

“We need more time,” Elena said.

“You’ve got six days,” Arthur said.

“We need longer than that,” Elena replied gently.

For a moment Arthur wanted to throw his phone across the room but it wasn’t Elena’s fault. He took several deep breaths.

“I’m so sorry, Arthur,” Elena said, sounding heartbroken. “I swear we’ve been working flat out but it’s so complicated."

“I know you did all you could,” Arthur told her, meaning it.

“What are you going to do now?”

“Probably best you don’t know,” Arthur said ruefully.

“Probably best,” Elena agreed. “But if you get arrested and need a lawyer…”

“I’ll call Amal Clooney,” Arthur said and Elena laughed.

“We’ll keep trying here. Be safe. I love you.”

“Love you too, Ellie.”

“Good luck.”

With a click she disconnected. Arthur stared at the phone for a few seconds before putting it down.

Perhaps he’d always known it would come to this. Arthur felt a strange kind of determination. He knew what he had to do.

He filled Merlin in on what Elena had said when he got to the zoo. Merlin sucked in a long breath, then managed a watery little smile.

“Well. Thanks for trying. I really appreciate-”

“Merlin, you idiot, I’m not giving up,” Arthur hissed. “It’s just time for Plan B.”

“Plan B?” Merlin said, looking up again.

“Cenred’s throwing a fancy dinner in the exhibition hall the Friday before the opening. This Friday, actually. Everyone on staff’s invited, including Val and Alvarr. And me, of course.”

Merlin’s eyes widened.

“Are you saying-”

“I’ve got access to the room and to the cell. The key to the wall chains is here. I’ll slip away from the party and I’ll let you out.”

Merlin looked like he couldn’t take it in.

“I can’t get the cuffs themselves off, I don’t know how,” Arthur said. “So we can’t rely on your magic to help us. But I’ll have my car waiting outside and we’ll… well, we’ll go on the run I guess.”

It sounded so absurd that for a moment they both just laughed.

“Bonnie and Clyde?” Merlin said.

“I have a trust fund, Merlin, we’re not robbing banks,” Arthur said primly.

Merlin tugged at the cuff around his left wrist.

“If we can get to the dragon nests, I think they might be able to get this off me.”

He looked at Arthur.

“It’s a long drive, though.”

“Just as long as it doesn’t end with me being burnt to a crisp,” Arthur said.

“Well that depends how polite you are.”

“I’ll bring flowers.”

They grinned and then just looked each other for a moment, the enormity of what was ahead hitting them.

“If this doesn’t work-”

“Merlin-”

“No, listen. Thank you, sincerely. I was… I was giving up before you came along.”

 _So was I_ , Arthur wanted to say, but he knew Merlin wouldn’t understand. How pointless and shallow his life had been before, how unhappy he’d always felt. Merlin had saved him from himself.

There wasn’t time to explain that now but perhaps someday he could.

 

[](http://imgur.com/dKbHGcD)

 

Arthur was a little late to the dinner after his obsessive checking and rechecking all was in place, but he wasn’t sorry about that. He was dreading sitting alongside his father and Cenred as they brayed over their success. It was only the thought of what he would do later that night that stopped him punching them both in the face.

Uther was his usual terse self, firing a few questions at Arthur to make sure his article was ready for Saturday’s edition. Arthur answered mechanically and was glad when his father’s attention moved elsewhere. The talk turned to investment opportunities in the zoo and Arthur was happy to tune out in favour of running through the plan in his head.

He made his move just as the main course was cleared away.

“If you’ll excuse me, Father, I’m feeling a little queasy,” he muttered in Uther’s ear.

“You’re not leaving?” Uther said sharply.

“No, just getting some fresh air.”

Uther dismissed him with a flick of the hand. He walked away satisfied that his father wouldn’t worry about his absence for some time yet, giving them the head start they needed.

Hopefully the rest of the plan would go as smoothly. Arthur fingered the keys in his pocket. All he had to do now was keep calm and act natural…

Then the questing beast burst through the doors.

The uproar was instantaneous. The guests leapt to their feet, already screaming, as the mighty creature lumbered in. Chairs were overturned, tables flipped, and people were knocked to the ground in the panicked stampede towards the exit. A piercing alarm began to blare, red warning lights flashing on and off in every corner.

Arthur stood frozen for a second, unable to comprehend the situation. It wasn’t until he heard a shout of “They’re all loose!” that he began to run. No one was heading back towards the main building so Arthur’s path was clear, although the questing beast was lurching from side to side in front of him. Heart racing, Arthur feinted to the left and then ran right, hoping with all his might the beast would be too slow to turn in time.

Though his fingertips skimmed the creature’s side, he made it past and through the shattered doors. There a scene of chaos awaited him. Wyvern hatchlings were dive bombing from the ceiling, claws extended. One of the Scottish shrub dragons was ripping a corrugated iron door apart, another was shooting fire through the main enclosure. A few small eskie rats scuttled past, their spiked tails tearing holes in the carpet. Arthur didn’t have time to wonder how or why all this had happened. He had to get to Merlin.

He grabbed the nearest thing he could see, a metal folding chair, and held it up, shield-like. Then he bolted towards the far door where the corridor to Merlin’s enclosure was. Two of the wyverns swooped on him immediately but he batted them away with the chair. But he left himself open to the third, which caught him with one claw to the shoulder and another to his neck. On instinct he swung out with the chair, managing to catch it hard on the nose and send it flying.

The scratches hurt like hell but they weren’t life threatening. Arthur raised the chair above his head and ran on.

The dragon chewing the door snapped at him as he passed by, but didn’t give chase. As he reached the door, a serket launched at him out of nowhere, giving him nasty knock to the stomach. Luckily its tail didn’t pierce his skin – Cenred claimed to have had them all de-venomed but Arthur didn’t want to stay and find out. He lobbed the chair at it and threw himself through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Then something was barrelling into him at high speed and Arthur raised his hands to protect himself, totally unprepared for the attack-

"Arthur?"

“Merlin!”

Arthur nearly sobbed in relief to see him standing there, seemingly unscathed by any creature assaults.

“Did you do this?” Merlin said, eyes wide with shock.

“No! Jesus! It just… happened.”

“You’re hurt,” Merlin said anxiously, pointing at his neck.

“Just scratches. Nothing got to you, did it?”

Merlin shook his head. It was only then that Arthur noticed the cuffs around his wrists were gone.

“The blockers! How did-”

“I don’t know! I was in the cell and suddenly this huge burst of power shot through the manacles, lifted me right off my feet. All the doors opened and the cuffs just fell off me, cracked right in two.”

Arthur had no idea what the hell was going on but he wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth.

“So your magic’s back?”

“Yes,” Merlin said, and suddenly he was flashing a grin of sheer delight. “It’s weak, I can’t use it yet. But Arthur, I can sense-”

Arthur never heard what Merlin could sense because at that moment there was a huge bang against the door he’d come through and they turned to see three wyverns slamming themselves at the glass panel.

“We have to go,” Arthur said. “Car’s round the right side, we just need to find a way out.”

Merlin nodded, and they set off away from the wyverns. Merlin was moving well after having not walked any distance in months, but Arthur was conscious that the adrenaline of the moment wouldn’t last long. He needed to get Merlin to the car before his strength gave out.

“If we take this left, I think there’s a fire exit not too far down,” Arthur said as they pushed through some double doors.

Then something dropped down from the ceiling and Arthur’s blood ran cold.

It was the cockatrice. And every thought Arthur had ever had about how old and worn down it looked vanished from his head, because the beast was terrifying. Its talons were sharper than knives and twice as long, its beak was hooked and its mighty wings were beating hard enough to dislodge the light fittings.

Worst of all, it had fixed its eyes on them.

“Duck,” Arthur shouted and managed to pull Merlin to the ground just as the cockatrice swooped towards them. It flew so close Arthur could feel the scrape of its talons on the back of his neck and he scrambled backwards, dragging Merlin with him. The creature regrouped quickly, turning in mid-air with a terrible cry to bear down on them again.

Arthur looked around frantically for a weapon. He grabbed an empty fire extinguisher from the floor and threw it with all his might. The beast reared back but the glint in its eye told Arthur he’d only made it angrier.

[](http://imgur.com/em1glOs)

He looked around again and – thank God – there was a discarded dart gun.

But when he snatched it up, a hand tugged at his own.

“No,” Merlin gasped out. “If you knock it out, they’ll recapture it.”

“It’s trying to kill us!” Arthur shouted back, a little hysterical. As if to prove Arthur right, the beast howled, its talons ripping through the door blinds.

“They don’t attack humans unless they’re desperate,” Merlin said insistently. “It just wants to escape. It thinks we’re a threa-”

The swipe came out of nowhere. Arthur was knocked off his feet, falling hard into the wall.

“Arthur!” Merlin shouted but Arthur was too dizzy with pain to respond. He tried to right himself but he could only make it to a crouch. Through blurry double vision, he saw the creature approach, and there wasn’t a thing he could use to defend himself…

“ _Astryce!”_

What Merlin had shouted, Arthur didn’t know, but the sound that immediately followed was like a glass cabinet shattering into pieces. He braced his head in his hands, convinced the cockatrice was still on course to strike, but no blow came.

When he dared to look up, the cockatrice was still hovering in the air before him, posed to attack. But its gaze was flickering between him and the wide open hole above its head.

Merlin had blasted the skylight open. How he had enough magic in him after all he’d been though, Arthur would never know. The time to wonder would be later, right now Arthur watched as the creature swivelled back and forth.

“Go!” Merlin was shouting, though his voice was much weaker than before. “Go, fly away!”

The beast seemed torn. Arthur stayed motionless, every inch of him praying that it would make its escape.

“Go!” Merlin shouted one last time and a spark of light shot from his fingertips towards the cockatrice.

The beast startled, turning its beady eye on Merlin. Arthur held his breath, his nerves on fire.

Then the cockatrice flew upwards with one last cry, before clearing the skylight and flying out of sight.

“Oh thank God,” Arthur breathed. “Merlin, you did it! You-“

The triumph died on his lips. Merlin had slumped to the floor, his eyes closed.

“No!”

Arthur rushed to his side, pulling his limp body into his lap.

“Merlin? Merlin? Wake up, come on.”

Merlin didn’t stir. He was drained of colour, like the fight had taken all he had. Which, Arthur realised grimly, it probably had.

But there was a still a pulse. Weak but beating. Enough to keep hope alive.

“That’s it, Merlin, you’re alright. Stay with me.”

He was cold to the touch but Arthur had no way to warm him up. He had supplies in the car, blankets and clothes, he just needed to get Merlin there.

He got to his feet and picked Merlin up, hating the way his head lolled back. Hating how light he was after months in captivity, how little he weighed in Arthur’s arms. He held Merlin close and started to make his way down the corridor. The left route out was blocked by debris but there was an exit down the stairs, if he could just make it…

“Stop right there.”

Arthur froze. For a second he couldn’t make out the figures emerging from the dust and smoke and his brain supplied the worst; it was Cenred, Val, Aredian, come to take Merlin back-

But it wasn’t any of them. It wasn’t even his father.

It was Daegal the lab tech. He was flanked by two women – one dark haired and one light – and a man with brown curly hair. For a moment they all just looked at each other. Then the light haired woman gasped, as if breaking the spell.

“He’s dead!”

The other three turned pale but the curly haired man stepped forward, a tendril of bright light shooting from his hand.

[](http://imgur.com/XHkkavL)

Arthur flinched on reflex but the light didn’t touch him. It stopped at Merlin’s body, briefly setting him aglow.

“He’s not dead,” the man said hoarsely. “But he’s in a bad way.”

The dark haired woman narrowed her eyes.

“You did this!” she spat at Arthur.

And then they were advancing, all four of them, and Arthur didn’t know what was going on, whether they were friend or foe.

“Get back,” he said, tightening his hold on Merlin.

“We won’t let you take him,” the dark haired woman said fiercely.

Take him where? Had they come to rescue Merlin? Or to kill him? If only his head wasn’t so dizzy from the cockatrice's swipe, if only he could think straight…

“I’m not giving him up,” he said determinedly. “Not without-”

_Without knowing who you are. Without knowing that he’s safe with you._

This was what Arthur wanted to say but words failed him. And then it was too late. There was a sudden pressure on his neck, like an invisible hand squeezing. He choked, his grip on Merlin loosening, then someone was running forward, tugging Merlin away. Arthur wailed in protest but he couldn’t get any air in, his vision was growing dark.

“Don’t… don’t…”

_Don’t hurt him._

Arthur dropped to his knees and the last thing he saw was the dark haired woman standing over him, venom in her eyes.

“Take him,” she said, and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RL strikes again, I apologise! Revised ETA for the last two chapters is tomorrow night. Thank you so much for the lovely comments, I haven't had chance to reply yet but I'm very grateful! <3


	5. Chapter 5

Arthur woke to the feeling of rough rope around his wrists, an aching shoulder, and a throat so tight it hurt to swallow. It was mere seconds before he remembered what had happened and his eyes flew open, Merlin’s name already on his lips.

“He’s alive,” said a cold voice near him. “No thanks to you.”

Arthur peered into the darkness of wherever he was held, just able to make out a figure by the far wall.

It seemed futile but he had to answer.

“I was trying to rescue him.”

A mirthless laugh.

“Save it,” the voice said darkly. “We know exactly who you are and what you were trying to do, _Arthur Pendragon._ ”

A light snapped on and Arthur winced, blinking rapidly to adjust. For a moment the world was out of focus and then the figure came into view.

It was the dark haired woman from before, staring down at him with her arms folded. He quickly scanned the room and saw a single mattress in the corner, heaped with blankets and with a dark head of hair sticking out one end…

“Merlin!” Arthur said, straining towards the mattress. But the ropes kept him tied fast to what felt like a radiator behind him.

“You don’t get to touch him,” the woman hissed. Then, raising her voice, “He’s awake!”

Seconds later the door opened and the others from the zoo corridor came in. Arthur met each of their eyes in turn, noting anger in the curly haired man’s face and ambivalence in the light haired woman’s. Daegal only looked worried, chewing his lip as he returned Arthur’s gaze.

“I thought you meant Merlin,” the light haired woman said, disappointed.

“Not yet. Could you check him again, Mordred?”

Mordred was seemingly the curly haired man, as he stepped forward to the mattress and crouched down next to Merlin. He held out his hand and Arthur craned his neck to see what was happening. From what he could tell, Mordred was performing the same spell from before, the one that lit Merlin aglow. A health check of some kind?

“His breathing is a bit easier,” Mordred said after a minute. “I think the tincture helped.”

“When will he wake up?” the light haired woman said plaintively.

Mordred sighed.

“He’s exhausted. His body needs time to recover from all he’s been put through.”

“We’ll have to move him soon,” Daegal said. “We can’t hole up here for too long.”

“I know, I know. He’s just… very weak.”

“We know who’s to blame for that,” the dark haired woman said sharply.

“Kara,” Daegal began.

“No, I don’t wanna hear it,” Kara shot back. “He may not have captured Merlin or even run the experiments but he’s watched the whole thing. He’s just as complicit.”

Arthur sucked in a breath. He couldn’t deny he had been complicit in a way. He should have broken Merlin out sooner. If they’d never had to face the cockatrice, Merlin might be conscious right now.

“Perhaps if we heard his side of it…”

“What could he possibly say to justify this?” Kara asked, her voice cracking as she pointed at Merlin. “They tortured him, Dae. They treated him like an animal. They were gonna lock him up for life.”

Daegal fell silent, gaze dropping to the floor. Mordred moved back towards the group.

“There’s no time to argue,” he said. “They’ll have tracked us soon enough. We need to decide what to do with him.”

“We have to kill him,” Kara said decisively.

Arthur’s heart stuttered in his chest.

“We can’t kill him,” Daegal said, aghast.

“We don’t have a choice! We nixed the zoo CCTV but he can identify us. If we let him go, it’s the end for all of us.”

“But killing him,” the other woman said tremulously. “Won’t that make us just as bad as him?”

“Sefa’s right,” Daegal said. “We can’t stoop to their level.”

“Do you want to go to jail?” Kara said, voice rising. “Do you know what they do to sorcerers in there? Do you really want to rot your whole life away in prison? ‘Cause believe me, they’ll throw away the key.”

Daegal looked like he was about to cry. Mordred touched Kara’s shoulder.

“Time out. We need to check the wards again, come on.”

Kara looked like she might protest for a second, then she exhaled and followed Mordred out, leaving the room in silence.

Arthur could scarcely breathe. After all this, here was where it would end. Perhaps this was the price he paid for living in his father’s shadow for so long, for never standing up for what was right.

He’d never get to see Merlin live free…

“You asked for my side of the story,” he began, painfully.

“Oh no, please don’t speak-” Sefa said.

“I wasn’t at the zoo to write an article,” Arthur said. “I mean, that’s why my father brought me but it changed the moment I met Merlin. All I wanted to do from that point on was get him out.”

He looked directly at Daegal.

“I was putting on an act the whole time, so they’d give me access. I know it’s a lot to ask you to believe, but it’s true. I left the dinner last night to break Merlin out but you all got there first. I was helping him to the door when we were attacked by the cockatrice. Merlin defended us but it drained his magic. I was carrying him to safety when we met.”

A long pause followed his statement. Arthur could hear for himself how flimsy it sounded, how convenient. There was nothing in there a liar wouldn’t say to save himself. But it was all he had.

“Do you have any proof?” Sefa said at last.

“No. Except…”

A thought occurred to Arthur.

“I was consulting a lawyer to see if there was a legal way to get Merlin out. You could call her from my phone. Elena Bellamy.”

Arthur was aware he sounded eerily calm all of a sudden. By rights he knew he should be panicking, but it was as if he’d gone beyond that point. So much had happened in the last two months that Arthur felt like a completely different person. This wasn’t how he hoped it would end but he didn’t feel the fear he was expecting. Merlin was safe. All he had was his truth. It had to be enough.

Daegal fished the phone from Arthur’s pocket and dialled the number. The silence went on for too long.

“No answer,” he said, unnecessarily.

Arthur nodded. It was probably three or four in the morning. Elena was most likely sound asleep.

“Why would you want to save Merlin?” Sefa said suddenly. “You’re Uther Pendragon’s son.”

“In name only,” Arthur said tiredly. “We have little else in common.”

“You’ve been working for him for years,” she pointed out.

“Yes. I was wrong,” Arthur said simply.

Silence fell again. Daegal wandered over to check on Merlin. Sefa opened a bottle of water and, after hesitating a few moments, offered a swig to Arthur.

It felt blissfully cool going down his sore throat. He thanked her and she nodded, clearly uneasy.

Daegal tried Elena’s number again and there was no answer.

“I’ll keep calling,” he said softly.

If Elena’s phone was off for the night, she likely wouldn’t switch it on before six am, and by then…

“How did you break Merlin’s wrist cuffs?” Arthur asked, looking for a distraction.

“I’m not sure we should say,” Sefa said and Arthur gave her a half-shrug, as if to say, what does it matter now?

Daegal and Sefa exchanged a look.

“We hacked the door lock system,” Daegal said at last. “But we couldn’t find a way to blast the cuffs too. So we decided to just send a massive jolt of magic through the system.”

“It worked,” Sefa said. “Only… too well. It burst open all the other cells too.”

She looked so sheepish that Arthur couldn’t help but smile.

“Ah well. They shouldn’t have been locked up either.”

Sefa gave him an odd, appraising look.

“Anyway, it was my fault,” she said and Daegal scoffed.

“What are you talking about? We’d have had nothing without you.”

He turned to Arthur.

“Sefa specialises in technological magic. Dab hand at it too.”

Sefa blushed.

“I’m still a learner.”

“She’s being modest,” Daegal said. “She can worm into practically any system. She even hacked her own hearing aids to pick up police radio broadcasts.”

“Okay, I will take credit for that,” Sefa said, grinning as she touched her ears.

“Impressive,” Arthur said, meaning it.

“Well, everyone has different skills. I mean, Mordred is amazing for bodily perception and healing. Kara does a lot of defensive spells and she basically set up all the wards on this place.”

“We’re in a halfway house, right?” Arthur guessed. “Don’t worry, I won’t ask where.”

“It’s only a temporary base,” Sefa said. “We never stay anywhere long.”

Arthur digested this. Surely this was the magical underground that his father had ranted so much about as being enemies of the state. And here they were working healing spells and defensive magic in the name of the greater good. Daegal and Sefa looked in particular as if they wouldn’t be out of place at a CND protest or an earnest village fete. Hardly the havoc wreakers Uther had always imagined.

“So what kind of magic do you do?” he asked Daegal.

“Um, hard to explain. Sort of like, emotional magic? Like, I can help people calm down and centre themselves and I can do a bit of magical soothing.”

Daegal’s face dropped.

“I tried to do it for Merlin. In- in the lab. Not sure it helped,” he said miserably.

“I’m sure it did,” Arthur said. He’d just about processed his shock over finding out Daegal was on Merlin’s side all along; now he was only relieved that there’d been someone else in the zoo trying to help.

“Can I ask… how did you guys know Merlin was in there? Elena told me he was never even reported missing.”

Elena had called his landlady, who said Merlin had broken his lease, put his stuff in storage and said he was going on a trip and didn’t know when he’d be back. Arthur had since realised this must have been when Merlin headed off to the Highlands to warn the dragons. He’d concluded that Merlin had told any friends and colleagues the same thing. No one had thought to raise the alarm when he didn’t come home, thinking it all part of his trip.

“We didn’t know,” Daegal said. “I went in there as a mole to free the creatures. My third week there they made me sign all these secrecy forms to be transferred to a ‘special project’. I went expecting it to be some kind of banned breed but then I got in the lab and I saw-”

He broke off, as though still traumatised by the memory.

“Our remit changed after that,” Sefa said quietly. “We still wanted to save the creatures but Merlin came first.”

“You managed to do both,” Arthur said and she gave him a little smile. “So you guys are like… sorcerer activists?”

“Something like that,” Daegal said. “We only did small things before though, sort of like pranks? Hacking anti-magic websites, sending eskie rats to right wing MPs, stuff like that. We even-”

Then he stopped, guilty.

“What?”

“Well, we sort of targeted Avalon once too,” he said awkwardly.

In a flash, it came to Arthur.

“The butterflies! That was you?”

Arthur remembered only too well the day Myror had opened up a package only for hundreds of tiny magical butterflies to fly out, screeching at the top of their lungs. The office had to be cleared for three days while they were all caught and Uther had been infuriated.

“That was brilliant,” Arthur said, laughing at the memory. “I’ve never seen my father so mad.”

Daegal and Sefa joined in the laughter after an uncertain moment.

“Yeah, well, that stuff was fun but it wasn’t… we wanted to make more of a difference,” Sefa said, after the laughter had subsided. “Then we heard about the new creature zoo and it seemed perfect.”

She sighed.

“I wish we could have got Merlin out faster though. None of us even remotely have the power he has. It took us till today to be anywhere near ready.”

“I wish I’d acted sooner too,” Arthur said quietly. He was being surprisingly honest with two almost strangers but somehow he wanted his last moments to be of sincerity. He’d wasted too much of his life putting up walls and being stoic. He wished he’d used his time better.

“Arthur, I think-” Sefa began but she was cut off as Kara and Mordred burst back into the room.

“They’re here,” Mordred said frantically.

“Who?”

“Magical Crimes Task Force. They’re hacking at the wards now.”

“How long?” Sefa asked, paling.

“Less than ten minutes. We need to go.”

“You guys get Merlin ready for transport,” Kara instructed.

She walked forward to Arthur, arm outstretched.

“I’ll take care of him.”

“No!” Daegal said. “Kara, he’s- I think he’s innocent. He told us what happened-”

“And you believed his lies?” Kara sneered.

“Yes,” came a hesitant voice and Sefa stepped forward. “I believe him too.”

Kara’s face contorted.

“Well, then I’m sorry. But I can’t risk all of us on the off chance he’s telling the truth. It’s too dangerous.”

And she raised her hand.

Arthur shut his eyes, hoping it wouldn’t hurt too much, hoping it would be quick-

For a long moment there was nothing but silence, so much so that Arthur wondered if he was already gone, if this was what death was like.

But when he opened his eyes Kara was still standing in front of him. A vein in her forehead was throbbing and her hand was shaking in mid-air.

“Ahh!” she suddenly shouted and lifted her hand to the ceiling, letting forth a spray of red sparks.

She couldn’t do it. Arthur saw her properly for the first time, a young woman of no more than twenty. A young woman who’d spent a life hidden in the shadows. A young woman who was scared, for her friends and herself.

“He’ll lead them to us,” she said and it was almost a plea, for someone else to step up and do it instead.

Mordred scrubbed his face with his hands.

“Okay, what if we… what if we stopped him saying anything?”

“None of us have the power for a muting spell-”

“No, I mean… a memory wipe. Just the past few hours, just so he forgets about us.”

“I wouldn’t be opposed,” Sefa said anxiously, “but I don’t think any of us have magic strong enough. It’s such a complex spell.”

“But the full memory wipe isn’t,” Kara said.

“What?”

“To wipe out memories for a specific time period is insanely complex, like Sefa said. But to blanket delete everything… well, that’s within our power.”

“No,” Daegal said, shaking his head. “You can’t just… that’s his whole life you’ll be taking away.”

“Better than killing him, isn’t it?” Kara snapped.

Arthur’s fear had returned tenfold, panic making his limbs lock up. Death would almost be better than that. He didn’t want to lose everything that made him him. Didn’t want to forget Merlin or the zoo or all he’d learned about magic. Didn’t want to, oh God, fall back under Uther’s care and be brainwashed all over again about how magic was the great evil of the world.

“No, not that, please not that,” Arthur begged.

“Mordred, you know I’m right,” Kara said.

“It’s so cruel,” Sefa said, nearly in tears.

“Please don’t let them,” Arthur said to Sefa and Daegal.

“I-”

“Please, my dad will take me home again,” Arthur babbled. “He’ll fill my memory up with lies, make me think Merlin did this to me. I won’t know any better…”

“It’s inhumane, Kara,” Daegal said desperately.

“You think I don’t know that?” Kara demanded. “You think I want to be the bad guy here? That I enjoy this? I will do whatever it takes to protect us. Even if you hate me for it.”

She dropped to her knees in front of Arthur, and placed her hand on his forehead. He jerked away, wild with panic.

“Please, Kara, I’m on your side! I swear I’m on your side!”

Tears were spilling down his face now, his heart pounding in his chest.

“I’m sorry,” Kara said softly. “I have no choice.”

“No,” Arthur sobbed. “No, please. Merlin. Merlin! MERLIN!”

“Stop!”

Kara froze. The voice was so deep, so loud, that for a moment it seemed the police had made it through.

Then Merlin stood up from his mattress.

“Get away from him. Now.”

There were sparks at his fingertips and Arthur had never seen the look on his face before, at once wonderful and terrible.

“He’s the enemy,” Kara whispered.

“No he isn’t,” Merlin said and Kara’s hand dropped from Arthur’s head like a stone. She fell back immediately, clearing the way for Merlin to limp over to Arthur.

“Are you alright?” he said quietly.

Arthur nodded, cheeks still wet with tears.

“Untie him,” Merlin ordered, and Sefa sprang forward, undoing the knots on Arthur’s wrists.

“Thank you,” Arthur whispered, still too shocked and overcome to say much.

Daegal was suddenly at Merlin’s side with a chair.

“You should sit down,” he said.

Merlin frowned.

“Daegal? From the lab?”

“Yes. We were trying to get you out. But we-”

“Released all the creatures instead?” Merlin said emotionlessly.

“Yes,” Daegal said, bowing his head.

Then to everyone’s surprise, Merlin cracked a grin.

“Good work.”

He turned to Kara.

“Arthur’s been helping me since day one. I don’t know what you were about to do to him but he didn’t deserve it.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara said in a low voice. “They’re breaking through the wards downstairs and I didn’t know what to do.”

Merlin nodded.

“I owe you all a debt of gratitude for what you tried to do for me. Which is why I’m going to tell you to leave now.”

“Not without you,” Sefa burst out, starting forward.

Merlin smiled at her.

“Don’t worry, myself and Arthur have a means of escape. But we can’t take you with us. Use your exit now and I’ll distract whoever’s downstairs long enough for you to go.”

“Your magic isn’t strong enough,” Mordred said worriedly.

“It’ll last a little longer,” Merlin said. “I need you to trust me on this. Can you do that?”

There was a pause and then the sorcerers all nodded as one. Arthur could see the deep respect they had for Merlin, the willingness to listen to anything he had to say.

“Go then,” Merlin said. “I’m sure our paths will meet again someday.”

“The back staircase,” Mordred said and picked up two rucksacks from the floor. “We can get to the van that way.”

“Goodbye Merlin,” Sefa said, and then, softly, “I’m sorry, Arthur.”

Arthur managed a weak smile back.

“Take care,” he said and Daegal nodded.

Then the four of them were gone.

 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Merlin said, helping Arthur to his feet.

“Me, what about you?” Arthur said shakily.

“Just enough juice to get us out of here,” Merlin said.

“I don’t have the car-”

“I think I can arrange an alternative means of transport. Give me a sec, I need to sort downstairs out.”

Arthur watched as Merlin closed his eyes and concentrated, humming slightly. His mouth formed a few quick words and then a tiny glow lit up his face briefly, before vanishing.

“I’ve covered the others’ tracks, the police won’t be able to follow them. But I can’t stop them getting in here; we only have about three minutes.”

“Three minutes?” Arthur said in alarm.

“It’s all I need,” Merlin said with a wink.

It was strange, seeing Merlin so confident even in a time of crisis. Arthur wondered if this was the effect of having his magic back, if it made all the difference.

“Come on,” Merlin said, grabbing Arthur’s hand.

“Where to?”

“The roof!”

Arthur let Merlin tug him up the fire escape, though his brain was working a mile a minute. How the hell were they going to get off the roof? If Merlin was about to reveal he had a magical helicopter at his disposal…

But there was nothing up there, just flat concrete and the bruised black sky of early dawn.

“Please tell me the plan isn’t to jump and hope for the best,” Arthur said.

Merlin squeezed his hand, a hand he was somehow still holding.

“I got interrupted in the zoo before. I was trying to tell you that I could sense the presence of something with my magic back. Something waiting nearby, ready to be called on.”

Then without warning he tipped back his head and let loose a string of sounds Arthur had never heard before, in a low, guttural tone.

“Merlin, what the-”

Merlin turned back to him, a broad grin spreading across his face.

“Just watch,” he said, pointing upwards.

For a long moment there was nothing. Then Arthur saw what looked like a speck in the distance, slowly getting closer. As it drew into view, Arthur could make out what looked like a vast pair of wings.

“Merlin, is that… is that…”

Arthur had seen dragons before; Dutch dwarfs in creature zoos and other common varieties, as well as the Scottish shrubs that Cenred had kept. But he had never seen a fully grown wild dragon before and the sheer size of it blew him away. It was huge and grey and its wings seemed to span the whole horizon, blotting out the London skyline.

“It’s Kilgharrah,” Merlin said happily. “He came back for me.”

He looked at Arthur.

“Well. For us. He’ll take us wherever we want to go.”

Despite Arthur’s unease about climbing up on the back of a full sized dragon, he wanted nothing more than to fly away with Merlin. And yet, suddenly clear as day, he realised he couldn’t.

“I can’t go with you,” he said and Merlin’s face dropped.

“You don’t want to?”

“No!” Arthur said quickly. “I want nothing more, believe me, even if I’m currently having visions of falling off his back and impaling myself on the Shard. But the fight’s not over yet, is it?”

He took Merlin’s other hand in his own.

“I need to stay here and see Elena’s case through. Give my evidence, if it’s needed. Because if we can change the laws… well, there’ll be no need for you to run anymore.”

Merlin huffed out a little laugh.

“You’re a noble idiot, Arthur Pendragon, and there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

“Yes, well, I hope you have the chance to say it again to me someday,” Arthur said, and he never meant anything more.

Merlin said nothing back, only smiled, soft and sweet.

A few seconds later their hair began to blow with the force of the wind from Kilgharrah’s wings. Awed, Arthur watched as the dragon alighted on the roof, with only just enough room to balance.

“Thank you for coming,” Merlin said to him.

“You are hurt, young warlock,” Kilgharrah said, and Arthur was taken aback by the rich deepness of his voice.

“I’ll live. Least I will if you get me out of here.”

“Then let us go, some tiny men with shields seem to be causing quite the commotion downstairs,” Kilgharrah sniffed.

Merlin turned to Arthur and for a moment they just looked at each other. Then Arthur was nearly knocked off his feet with the force of Merlin’s hug.

“I’ll never forget what you did for me,” Merlin whispered.

“Take care of yourself,” Arthur whispered back, overcome with emotion.

There was no more time for goodbyes. Arthur could hear the front door breaking downstairs and he pushed Merlin towards Kilgharrah, who dipped his long neck so Merlin could climb up with ease.

The dragon did not leave immediately, instead turning his cold eyes on Arthur.

“I have always known the Pendragons to be an enemy of magic and all my kin,” he rumbled and Arthur felt his knees quiver a little.

Then Kilgharrah broke into an unmistakeable smile.

“Perhaps even a dragon as old as I gets it wrong from time to time.”

Arthur could only nod in relief, watching as Kilgharrah unfolded his massive wings. Merlin gave Arthur one last smile as the dragon rose up into the air. Arthur raised his hand in return and didn’t lower it until they were nearly out of sight, a mere dot against the lightening sky.

Then the door to the roof opened and Arthur let himself drop to the ground, moaning loudly in pain.

“Are you alright, son?” an officer shouted as she ran over. “Who took you? Where did they go?”

“I don’t remember anything,” Arthur said and closed his eyes, Merlin’s parting smile seared into his mind.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is here! Thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> LFB, can you believe this was meant to be a 3k fic?! Thank you so much for collabing with me <3

Arthur spent a day and night in hospital on his father’s insistence, despite the fact that his wyvern scratches and the serket blow to his stomach were treated within two hours.

“He could have been exposed to all kinds of magical curses,” Uther had bellowed at the doctor. “And you need to restore his memory so he can tell us who did this.”

Dr Sophia Clement was impressively steadfast in the face of Uther’s bullying.

“We’ll run a full roster of tests but there is no way to ‘restore’ a memory,” she said calmly. “It’s likely that with rest and time, Arthur will be able to remember for himself.”

“That’s not good enough,” Uther snapped and Sophia only raised an eyebrow.

“I’m afraid it’ll have to be, Mr Pendragon. Excuse me.”

Then she’d walked away, leaving his father to rage to himself.

Arthur mostly feigned sleep until Uther was gone. He couldn’t help but be hurt that his father had barely asked him how he felt. He’d simply gone straight on to who was responsible and how he’d make them pay.

But the nurses were kind and Sophia explained each test before she administered it. Arthur knew full well she wouldn’t find anything, but he didn’t object. He was exhausted and his body felt like he could do with a night under watchful medical care.

Elena showed up mid-afternoon, a handsome, kind looking man at her side. Arthur was pleased to finally meet Elyan in the flesh, and even more pleased to accept Elena fussing over him for a bit. In bits and pieces he explained all that had happened since last night.

“You’re a moron, Pendragon,” Elena scolded, as she plumped up his pillows. “A brave, brilliant moron. If I’d known what you were planning…”

They both knew she would have given him her full blessing but neither minded the pretence.

“It all worked out alright in the end, Ellie!” Arthur protested, gratefully accepting the salted caramel ice cream pot she’d smuggled in for him.

“You call being half-maimed by a wyvern alright, do you?” Elena said, whipping out a Thermos of tea from her seemingly bottomless Mary Poppins bag. “I’m so mad at you I can’t even speak. Milk and sugar?”

Sophia eventually chucked them out when Elena tried to plug in a hot plate, but not before Arthur had extracted a promise from Elyan to check on Daegal and the others.

“Merlin will want to know that they’re safe,” he said.

“There’s nothing in the news implicating any of them,” Elyan reassured him. “But I’ll be trying to get in touch with Daegal anyway. If he’s willing to testify about the lab, it could be a game changer.”

Arthur hoped that Daegal felt able to, that he wouldn’t be too scared of the repercussions. Having met Elyan, Arthur was sure he could be trusted to protect any witnesses; it was evident he only had the best interest of magic users at heart.

One other titbit Elena had revealed was that Cenred and a few other higher ups in the zoo had been arrested for breach of public safety. Arthur was pleased to hear almost all of the escaped creatures had vanished without a trace, hopefully gone to safer hideouts away from humanity.

“This is great for us, though,” Elena said. “An investigation into the zoo’s already begun, we’ll be able to piggyback right onto it. And obviously public opinion of Cenred et al couldn’t be lower, so good grounds for proposing a change to the warlock law.”

It was all he could have hoped for. Despite how ropey the last twenty four hours had been, Arthur was glad for what Daegal and the others had done, as it brought the zoo into the public eye in a way him simply absconding with Merlin never could have.

After they’d gone, Sophia drew the blinds and firmly informed Arthur he needed sleep. Despite being ridiculously tired, Arthur was convinced he had too much to think about to ever drift off. And yet Sophia barely had time to turn the light out before his eyes felt too heavy to stay open.

He woke the next morning to find Uther kicking up a fuss again, apparently appalled that the tests had revealed nothing. Arthur bitterly wondered if his father would rather he actually was cursed and dying, just to back up his anti-magic stance.

The drive home was mostly listening to Uther ranting on, but at one point he did pat Arthur’s leg and say gruffly.

“Glad to have you back in one piece. I suppose you’ll be relieved to get back to the sports beat now.”

He swerved into Arthur’s driveway and huffed out a sigh.

“Enough time wasted on that bloody zoo article.”

“I’m not sure it has to be wasted,” Arthur said, aiming for innocuous. “I still have all the raw materials… I was thinking last night I could adapt it into a piece about the dangers of all those creatures on the loose.”

Arthur practically saw his father’s eyes light up; the prospect of keeping his topical front page spread mixed with the chance to push Avalon’s agenda.

Before he was settled in his living room Uther had given him a new deadline of the next weekend and a promise to publicise the hell out of it. Arthur needed no further incentive. He got to work the second Uther left.

The hack job article took half a day. Arthur was sadly all too familiar with Avalon’s house style; he practically wrote it on auto-pilot. He condemned Cenred as negligent, the staff as untrained, and the creatures as the single biggest threat to the UK in recent history. Needless to say, Uther was thrilled.

The actual article took longer. It wasn’t easy getting all the facts on paper, reliving all the awful things Merlin had been through. But fervour for the truth drove Arthur on. If he had never felt like a real journalist before, he felt like one now. He was finally writing something that mattered.

The day it was due to go to print, Arthur nodded his approval of the mock up to Avalon’s surly printer Myror, then left the office to wait around the corner. Three hours later, once he was sure all staff were gone, he burst back in.

“Has it gone to bed yet?” he asked, panicked.

“It’s about to,” Myror grunted.

“I misnamed a source,” Arthur said. “I need to fix it please, we could get sued-”

Myror rolled his eyes.

“I’m going for a fag. If you can fix it in that time…”

“I can, thank you!” Arthur gushed. He waited till the door clicked behind Myror and then stuck his USB into the computer. A few minutes of copy and pasting later, and a quick fiddle with the formatting, the article was good to go.

“Cheerio!” Arthur shouted as he passed Myror on the stairs down. Then he went home and sank into the first peaceful sleep he’d had since this whole thing began.

 

[](http://imgur.com/YUd8G7t)

 

The next morning all hell broke loose. Arthur didn’t even bother to listen to the countless voicemails his father had left, though he did read a gleeful text from Elena saying Uther had tried to recall the magazines but the article had already gone viral online.

Arthur didn’t pick up the phone for another hour, when he received a message from the Metropolitan police asking him to come in and make a statement.

Thing progressed surprisingly quickly from there. Cenred and Aredian managed to make bail for the initial charges, but were indicted on several other counts. The police weren’t quite sure what to charge them with so finally settled on unlawful detainment of a person deemed human until proved otherwise. Elyan took the opportunity to make public a motion to update the Magical Taxonomy Act of 1753.

The public outcry was too much for the police not to make an arrest. The articles had made headlines worldwide and sparked a much larger debate about magical rights. A man in Japan and two in India outed themselves as warlocks too. Best of all, a proposal to repeal the 1753 act in parliament was put together. Elyan told Arthur he expected it to be fast-tracked through both houses, given the public mood.

The preliminary trial date was set for October. Elyan’s firm immediately stepped up to take on the prosecution, with Elena drafted in to help present the case. The publicity meant that lawyers from all over the world got in touch to offer their expertise on magical law. Best of all, Daegal resurfaced with a hard drive of meticulously gathered lab reports, video evidence, and purchase orders with Cenred and Aredian’s signatures all over them. There was no way either man could claim to have acted in ignorance.

The main witness, of course, was missing. No one had seen or heard from Merlin since the day he flew away. Arthur had given him a fake name in the article, of course, and the court was referring to him as M for the records. Arthur hoped his identity could stay hidden throughout, he didn’t want press or members of the public trying to track him down. Arthur was called to testify instead, along with Daegal, and Alvarr too, who had cut a deal to lessen his sentence by spilling the beans.

The trial was a protracted, exhausting affair and Arthur was glad he was only a small part of it, and that he was done fairly quickly. Elena was practically living at the courthouse and Arthur couldn’t be prouder of the work she was doing. He tried to drop by every now and then with coffee and sandwiches and a few words of encouragement. However, the preliminary trial was just that – a preliminary. It would take a long time to fully try such a complex case. Arthur knew that justice was slow but he was reassured by Elyan that Cenred and Aredian wouldn’t be walking away from this. They were looking at life sentences and Arthur took no small amount of satisfaction in the way Aredian’s cold demeanour had slowly shown cracks as the trial had worn on, while Cenred begged and pleaded his innocence to anyone who would listen. It was clear that both men knew they would be going away for a long time.

On a bright, cold day in November, Arthur turned on the news to see parliament had voted to repeal the Magical Taxonomy Act. Merlin was free.

 

[](http://imgur.com/9Nlb830)

 

He was invited to dinner two days later, in the new flat Elena and Elyan had bought. Arthur was only too glad to accept. He had gotten to know Elyan even better during the course of the trial and found him to be a man of morals and decency, with enough wit to keep up with Elena besides. He couldn’t have asked for a better match for his best friend.

The mood was celebratory. Elena and Elyan were both exhausted but happy. Their case was strong and they were sure of their chances of success. And the Act being repealed so quickly was the icing on the cake.

Arthur should have been happy too, and he was. And yet…

He hadn’t heard from Merlin.

Not that he should have expected to, really. Wherever Merlin was, he would likely be setting up a new home for himself, and hopefully recovering from the trauma he’d been through. He didn’t owe Arthur anything, he needed to focus on himself right now.

Still, Arthur would have killed for so much as a one word text. He understood that Merlin would have wanted to stay incognito throughout the trial, but now that the Act had been repealed, he had hoped for something. Just to know that Merlin was safe, that was he was doing well. The repeal had been reported on worldwide; it was unlucky Merlin had missed it, wherever he was. And he didn’t know Arthur’s address or number but surely there was some way to send a message…

But it was churlish of Arthur to feel this way. Merlin was free now and that was all that mattered. If he needed to cut off all ties, then Arthur could only support him and wish him well. It made sense that he wouldn’t want to contact Arthur again, if truth be told. He probably didn’t want any reminders of the pain he’d suffered in his new life.

Arthur could admit to himself that it was about a little more than knowing Merlin was safe. A bond had been struck up, in that terrible place. Arthur had gotten to know Merlin well, and he had liked what he had seen. There had been no time to reflect on it then, but now he often thought about what might have happened under different circumstances. Whether he was imagining it or whether there had been a connection there.

Most of all, he just missed him. Perhaps that was why he proposed a toast at the end of dinner.

“To Merlin,” he said, a slight lump in his throat. “Wherever he may be.”

It didn’t escape his notice that Elena and Elyan exchanged a rather significant look at that.

“What?”

“Well, we were just wondering if you’d heard anything,” Elena said cautiously.

“No,” Arthur said, hoping he didn’t sound too miserable. “I mean, I didn’t expect to. How would he even contact me anyway?”

“Through a proxy, maybe?” Elyan said and Arthur frowned in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

Elena placed a postcard in front of him.

“This arrived yesterday.”

Arthur took the postcard and noted with surprise that it was addressed to him, care of Delgado and Smith Law. But the card was completely blank other than the address.

Then he noticed the Greek stamp and his heart began to thump.

He turned it over and saw a picture of an island surrounding by sparkling blue sea. The title read Elpída, Corfu.

_I stayed on a Greek island once, a tiny little bit of land just off Corfu._

“Oh my God,” Arthur said softly.

He looked up to see both Elena and Elyan smiling knowingly at him.

“So Arthur,” Elena said, helping herself to some more wine. “I was going to invite you out for drinks next week. Not busy are you?”

“Sorry Ellie,” Arthur said, grinning fit to burst. “I think I’ll be in Greece.”

 

<[](http://imgur.com/MBGPDqm)

 

It was unseasonably hot when Arthur stepped off the plane at Corfu airport. He regretted wearing his suit but he’d put it on almost like an armour that morning, one last defence against his mounting anxieties.

What if Merlin didn’t want to see him? What if he’d sent the card just to let Arthur know he was safe? What if he was horrified that Arthur had shown up here?

It was too late to back out now. Arthur hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address of the pier he needed. He sat in the back seat, nerves jangling. What would Merlin look like? How would he act? Would he even still be here?

He shut his eyes and tried to empty his mind. Whatever happened, he was glad he had come. He could never have lived with himself if he hadn’t.

The official boat over to Elpída wasn’t due for another hour and Arthur found he couldn’t wait. He offered a man sunbathing on his boat thirty euros to take him. The man looked like he couldn’t believe someone would be idiotic enough to pay that much for a five minute ride but he readily accepted.

When Arthur stepped off onto Elpída, he had a moment of panic. It was bigger than he’d thought and he didn’t realise have the faintest idea of where to find Merlin. He could try asking but his Greek was poor and Merlin probably wouldn’t be going by his own name anyway…

There was nothing else for it so Arthur set off walking along the beach, suitcase in hand. After a few paces he pulled his jacket off, shoved his shoes in his case and rolled his trousers up, vowing to change into shorts the first chance he got.

The sun was shining strong and the sand was warm beneath his bare feet. The blue-green ocean was lapping just beside him and Arthur couldn’t resist dipping his feet in as he walked. There were little shells everywhere, pale brown and striped with pink insides and they looked so pretty Arthur wanted to collect them all up. It was silly but he was suddenly feeling more relaxed than he had in a long time.

Then he looked up and there was a man sat on a rock in the distance, head bent down in concentration.

Arthur knew instantly. He quickened his pace, afraid that it would turn out to be a mirage if he didn’t hurry. But more features slowly came into focus; tousled brown hair, a white shirt, long hands, blue eyes…

He was only a few metres away when Merlin looked up. For a moment he froze in shock and then he was leaping to his feet, dropping whatever it was he held and running the few paces forward to Arthur.

Arthur let his suitcase and jacket go and opened his arms. Merlin ran into them like it was the most natural thing in the world.

 

[](http://imgur.com/buW66Z6)

 

Later that night, after Merlin had given Arthur a tour of the island, after he’d dropped his stuff off in Merlin’s little villa (“don’t be ridiculous Arthur, of course you can stay with me”), and after they’d eaten a wonderful meal of calamari and sea bass at the taverna, they found themselves walking along the beach again.

They reached the pier where Arthur had arrived and sat down on the end, bare legs dangling in the water.

“So you sell the woodcuts in a shop?”

“Yes, I have an arrangement with a gift shop owner.”

That was what Merlin had been busy with when Arthur first saw him, a tiny dragon woodcut. He’d showed Arthur the rest of his work back at the villa – there were creatures of all shapes and sizes but dragons were the most popular theme.

“And that makes you enough money?”

“I teach magic classes on the mainland as well,” Merlin explained. “Twelve to eighteens and then another for adults.”

“Classes, really?”

“I was surprised too! They’re a lot more pro-magic here than I thought. This is the first place where I’ve been able to work a spell in the street and have people smile at me rather than frown.”

“Show me,” Arthur said impulsively. He’d never seen Merlin use his magic before outside of defending them and it was suddenly all he wanted to see.

Merlin looked out to the sea, humming slightly. For a second Arthur thought his request had been ignored and then the water in front of them rippled. Arthur watched in amazement as a glittering dolphin emerged from the water, made entirely from sea foam. It twisted in mid-air, looped the loop, and balanced on its nose on the pier. Then it zoomed straight at Arthur and dissolved as it made contact, covering him in foam residue.

“Hey!” Arthur said, but he couldn’t hold his smile back.

“I thought you might like to see it up close and personal,” Merlin said cheekily.

Arthur flicked a little foam at Merlin, who ducked away, laughing.

“Well, I did, so thank you,” Arthur said. “That was incredible.”

“Aw, you’re gonna make me blush,” Merlin said, nudging Arthur’s shoulder with his own.

Arthur couldn’t stop looking at him. He was a totally different man to the one Arthur had known before. Happier, more confident, more at peace. And yet he was the same too; the same determination and character that had gotten him through all the horrors of the zoo. Arthur couldn’t be more awed by him.

“What?” Merlin said, self-consciously flattening his hair.

“Nothing,” Arthur said softly. “You just look… so much better.”

Merlin gave him a wry smile.

“Well, I can’t say I’m one hundred percent every day. I still get… it’s hard, sometimes. To cope.”

Arthur nodded.

“But I’m getting there. Slowly. Bit by bit.”

“I think you’re amazing,” Arthur said sincerely. “I think you’re just so…”

He couldn’t think of a better word. Merlin was still standing, after all that had happened. It took a special kind of courage. A special kind of person.

“Now I really am blushing,” Merlin said but he looked pleased. “And if we’re doing compliments… well, I read the article. And I want to thank you for it.”

“It was nothing-” Arthur began.

“No!” Merlin said fiercely. “It was something. All the stuff that came after, the trial and the repeal and everything, that was because you shoved it in their face. You didn’t let them ignore it anymore.”

Arthur squeezed Merlin’s arm.

“I’m glad it worked out. Because, well… you can come home now? If you’d like.”

“I will,” Merlin said. “One day. But not yet. I’m happy here, for now. It's... simple and I like it.”

Arthur tried to push down the pang of disappointment that Merlin wouldn’t be coming back with him. But he understood. Merlin had made a life for himself out here, a life of calm and stability and gentleness. Arthur would never get in the way of that.

“I get it,” Arthur said. “You could fall in love with a place like this.”

“Have you?” Merlin said, almost too quiet for Arthur to hear. “Because you could… you could stay here if you wanted. For a while.”

“I could?” Arthur said, genuinely shocked.

“My villa’s got a spare bedroom,” Merlin mumbled, looking down. “I could do with the extra rent. And-”

He lifted his eyes to meet Arthur’s.

“And- it might be nice to get to know you. Properly.”

Arthur felt a bubble of happiness welling up inside himself.

“Yes please,” he said. “Yes, I want that.”

Merlin smiled then, as sweet as he had when they’d last said goodbye. And in that moment Arthur felt how wonderful it would be to turn and kiss him. And how now was not the right time for that but maybe someday soon it would be.

Instead he clasped Merlin’s hand in his own and they stared out at the sea together, watching the waves lap lovingly against the shore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you liked it, please head over to the [art post](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11037300) to show LFB all the love!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Art: Between the Bars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11037300) by [LFB72](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LFB72/pseuds/LFB72)




End file.
